Multimedia artist Mercedes Dorame to deliver the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture 2022 commencement keynote address

Dorame is a UCLA alumna and has exhibited work at the Hammer and Fowler museums

Native American Indigenous artist and UCLA alumna Mercedes Dorame will deliver the keynote address at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s 2022 commencement on Saturday, June 11^th at 4 p.m. This will be the first commencement ceremony to be held in-person since 2019.

Dorame, a multimedia artist whose work encompasses photography, sculptural installations, and sound art, is a member of the Tongva people. Her heritage connects her deeply to the landscape of California, and her practice explores what it means to be a Native inhabitant of contemporary Tovaangar (present-day Los Angeles).

Dorame received her undergraduate degree from UCLA in American literature and culture, and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. She was included in the Hammer Museum’s Made in LA 2018 biennial exhibition and the Fowler Museum’s The Map and the Territory: 100 Years of Collecting at UCLA exhibition in 2021. This past fall, she taught Advanced Photography to undergraduate students in the school’s Department of Art.

“UCLA has been an important part of my growth as an artist, and I’m excited about this opportunity to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way with graduating students,” Dorame said.

“Mercedes’ work speaks powerfully to the historical injustices tied to the land that we live and work on. Her participation in our commencement ceremony is an important acknowledgement of the debt that we owe to her ancestors, the native inhabitants of this land,” said Brett Steele, dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. “Our community has demonstrated a commitment to speaking out for equity and justice, and Mercedes’ practice resonates profoundly with that commitment.”

Dorame’s work is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, LACMA, The Huntington, Kadist, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Triton Museum, The Allen Memorial Art Museum, The de Saisset Museum, The Montblanc Foundation Collection, and The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum.

She is the recipient of grants and fellowships from: Creative Capital, the Montblanc Art Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Loop Artist Residency, the James Phelan Award for California born visual artists, En Foco’s New Works Photography Fellowship Awards program, Galería de la Raza, for her solo exhibition there, the Harpo Foundation for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center and from the Photography Department at the San Francisco Art Institute for her MFA Studies.

She is currently visiting faculty at CalArts and was recently honored by UCLA as part of the centennial initiative “UCLA: Our Stories Our Impact.” She has shown her work internationally. Her writing has been featured in News From Native California and 580 Split and her artwork has been highlighted by PBS Newshour, Artforum, KCET Artbound, The New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, KQED, Artsy, ARTnews, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, among others.