Los Fantasmas Artist Collective
Los Fantasmas Artist Collective was developed in the late 1990s by Carlos Fresquez, Tony Diego, Ismael Lozano and Josiah Lopez as a response to the local art scene that in our view treated BIPOC artists as “fantasmas” (ghosts) or “the unseen”. Now consisting of six Indigenous, Chicano, and Raza identifying artists, Los Fantasmas is dedicated to our communities to broaden the scope of venues available to BIPOC Artists throughout the Denver and greater Colorado area.
Throughout its history, LFAC has organized such events as Urban Decay, which transformed the Chicano Arts and Humanities Council Gallery into a vision that reflected the decay of the urban Chicano Neighborhood in which it was located. We participated in exhibits and panel discussions at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo Colorado. We also curated a Dia de Muertos Exhibit with community discussions in Trinidad Colorado at the Corazon Gallery. More recently, LFAC has collaborated with youth organizations such as Colorado Circles for Change, Gang Rescue and Support Project, and the Denver Juvenile Diversion to facilitate classes for youth to participate in art exhibits alongside established artists. Raza Futura, our most recent exhibit was held at the Hideout Gallery and continued the vision. The exhibit included work from LFAC founding members, several upcoming artists, college students and youth artists following our original vision and mission to create space for the unseen BIPOC artist.
TEAM MEMBERS
Carlos Fresquez
Carlos has exhibited in over 30 U.S. states and over a dozen different countries. He has lectured about Chicano Art history and his own artwork at many colleges, universities, galleries and art centers including Ohio Wesleyan University, The Bronx Museum, Las Bellas Artes in Mexico City and The National Museum of American Art - The Smithsonian.
Selected traveling exhibitions; Arte Caliente (2005-2007); The Colorado Artist Fellowship Awards Exhibition (1997); The Chicano Codices; Encountering Art of the Americas (1992-1994); Rasquachismo; Chicano Aesthetics (1988-1989); and the groundbreaking exhibition; CARA - Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (1990-1993).
Selected awards include; Best New Public Art - Westword and Reader’s Choice, Denver, CO 2010, The Spirit of Tlatelolco Art and Culture Award, Escuela Tlatelolco, Denver, CO 2010, Artist in the Community, NEWSED 25th Annual Civil Rights Award, Denver, CO 2016 and the prestigious Bonfils Stanton Foundation, Artist Award, 2018.
Tony A. Diego
Tony Diego is an artist that has lived and worked in Colorado for nearly 50 years. Tony earned his Fine Arts Degree with a Human Services Minor from Metropolitan State University in Denver Colorado. He has facilitated and directed youth art and restitution programs in urban and rural Colorado for over 20 years. His passions are art, travel, culture, and long hours listening to amazing music while working in his studio.
Tony facilitates Men’s Healing groups that promote connections and respect of our mother earth and the ancestors who have come before us. Colorado is Tony’s home however his life has been forever enriched from having the honor and privilege of seeing art in person from all over the US including New York, LA, and Santa Fe, and internationally in places like Germany and Paris and as far south as Lima Peru and Santiago Chile.
Tony’s current paintings cross over from conceptual art to artivism. He incorporates scenes that are both beautiful to the viewer's eye and portray a message that invites the viewer to take a deeper and longer look. Using indigenous images and focusing on scenes from the southern US, Mexico and South America Tony seeks to enrich the viewing experience while offering opportunities to see our world through a critical lens.
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Izzy Lozano
Izzy (Ismael) Lozano is a Denver native, born and bred Chicano, and has has been making art primarily through the medium of Oil Painting for the last 30 years. Married with two daughters and a grandson, he currently teaches two-dimensional art foundations at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Oil, Acrylics and Watercolor at Washington Heights Art Center and Lakewood Cultural Art Center. He owns and operates his interior/exterior painting company, Artistic Interiors of Colorado, serving the Denver Metro area painting needs. He is a founding member of Los Phantasmas and has been showing with this group for 25 years. Being with Los Phantasmas has given him an opportunity to explore his cultural identity, engage in political discourse and use principles found in classical painting to express his artistic vision.
Grace Gutierrez
Grace Gutierrez is a Longmont, Colorado based artist working in a variety of mediums including painting, ceramics, sculpture, and video art.
Her work celebrates her mixed-race, Chicanxa identity, and is a response to deeply personal experiences as well as her family’s experiences navigating culture, heritage, and stereotypes. She is inspired by Mexican folk art, folklore, and literature.
Constant reflection of community and cultural pride helps Grace build sentimental narratives to encourage empathy, equity, and pride within our communities.
Grace was born and raised in Longmont, Colorado where she still resides, working to expand creative opportunities for local artists. Grace received her BFA with an emphasis in painting and ceramics from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2020.
Morgan DeVillier
Morgan DeVillier is a Denver Metro based artist. Her focuses are on her multi-racial identity, environmental justice, and reproductive and gender rights. She utilizes acrylic paint, photography, and written word to create. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art with a minor in Anthropology. Her interests in creating are driven by her curiosity to understand the current social and environmental state of the world. She has volunteered around the world to explore ways in which people navigate and problem solve the impacts of globalization. Through art she poses questions about human relationships to their environment and each other. Morgan’s art practice continues to develop as she explores herself as a person of color, multi-racial and white passing, as an American citizen, a Coloradan, a human being, and an anthropological and environmental observer.
“My art practice explores themes considering humanness, duality, globalization, and the natural world. I often question what it means to be human, ponder our relationship to the natural world, and consider how social climates impact what it means to be alive today. In my current practice , I explore mundane human-made objects in the contemporary west and consider their relevance to my identity.”
Micah Ramirez
Micah Ramirez (they/them) is an interdisciplinary Chicana artist, advocate, and community member. Their work in the community greatly informs their artistic practice which they use to bring attention to complex intersectional issues faced by their community. Issues of particular importance to them include: sexual/gender based violence, bodily autonomy and reproductive justice, Queer liberation, and breaking cycles of abuse.
They explore these topics through a personal and spiritual lens, using their background in Critical Theory to draw connections between their own experiences and larger societal and cultural systems that affect us all. Using imagery and symbolism that has historically been used to create a shared identity and sense of cultural pride in the Chicano community, their work encourages the viewer to further cultivate an empowered community by interrogating the ways in which they may recreate/perpetuate patriarchal and colonial harm in their own lives and communities.
Notable exhibitions and projects include their solo exhibition at MSU Denver An Offering to the Cycle Breakers and their mural A Better Future is Possible for the SpaceTech Scholars program (created in partnership with Morgan DeVillier). Their work has been shown at Munich Jewelry Week 2024, The Blue Bench’s annual RISE Survivor Art Show, and Alto Gallery’s Everyone’s Everything. They have shown frequently with Chicano Humanities and Arts Council. Curatorial experiences include co-curation of CHAC's Chicano Legacy show with Tania Maldonado in August 2023 and assistant curation of Los Fantasmas On the Rise at Yolia Art Space with Morgan DeVillier.
Veronica Herrera
Veronica Herrera was born in San Antonio, Texas. She received her BFA in drawing, from the University of Texas at San Antonio. And she received her MFA, in painting and drawing, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has exhibited in notable spaces such as the Museo de las Americas, the Arvada Center for the Arts, CU Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Art Fort Collins, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. She has been teaching at the University of Colorado at Denver for over 18 years
Frank Lucero
Frank is deeply committed to being a lifelong visual artist. In his free time or late into the evening, you can find him painting and working on new artworks. As an abstract painter, he's focused on the exploration of the line as a representation of our spiritual nature or lifeline. He is a talented Jack of All Trades. He currently is a Development Director living and working in Denver, Colorado. His focus is advocating for the Arts and Non-Profit Organizations and how they can best serve their communities. As a professional, Frank has worked for art institutions such as the Denver Art Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Dairy Arts Center, Museo de las Americas and Creative Strategies for Change. He has been serving communities throughout the State of Colorado for more than 20 years by providing leadership
experience in developing programs and building collaborative initiatives that create programming, discover
resolutions to social issues and the use of artistic strategies that improve the quality of life for others.
BOARD MEMBERS
Angel Perez
Executive Director of Colorado Circles for Change
Monique Diego
Compliance Coordinator
As a president in property management with 10 + years of experience, I have a deep understanding of the industry and a proven track record of successfully managing and overseeing various teams and projects. I am a hospitality focused and results driven leader.
My expertise lies in Large Scale Residential, Commercial & Metropolitan District Management, where I
have a comprehensive understanding of legal regulations, governance, and financial management. I
have successfully guided numerous teams through the challenges and complexities of Federal, State and
District governance, always prioritizing transparency, collaboration, and client satisfaction.
Ulysses Diaz
Board Secretary
I completed my Masters in Social Work from The University of Illinois at Chicago Jane Addams School of Social Work. I have 13+ years working in higher education as a counselor. I am also an adherence rater on the MDMA clinical studies with Lykos Therapeutics, formerly known as MAPS PBC. I have been working with a private practice for a few years. Working with temicxoch, flowery dreams, as the indigenous Mexica called altered states of consciousness, is an honor and a privilege. My goal is to support the journey many individuals take with psychedelics from the mind to the heart, through the body.
Nadi Carey
Treasurer
I am a Native Coloradoan of Chiricahua Apache and Irish descent, a mixed blood. I identify as Native or Indigenous. Carlos Fresquez was my colleague in Graduate School. I was lucky enough to be able to have my MFA exhibition show right next to Carlos's when we graduated. After finishing Graduate school, I went to work for DPS and taught Ceramics at Lincoln High School for 11 years. I was then transferred to Denver School of the Arts and served DPS for another 3 years. Then, I left teaching to fulfill my dream of raising and training two fantastic Appaloosa Leopard horses, Cochise and Geronimo. I had a small jewelry business of handmade gemstone jewelry I created and sold at Farmer's Markets to pay for the horses. Now I am retired. Recently, I have finished 3 years towards an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science. I hope to do meaningful work in the future with this degree.
