Artist Bio – Adrian Delgado

Adrian Delgado is a Richmond-based painter whose work explores labor, identity, and cultural memory through personal and socially engaged narratives. Born in 1985 to Mexican immigrant parents and raised in South San Francisco as the middle child between an older brother and a younger sister, Delgado grew up witnessing the sacrifices and perseverance required to build a stable life. Today, he lives with his wife and two daughters, whose presence deepens the emotional grounding of his practice.

Delgado earned a BFA in Painting with honors from California College of the Arts in 2014. Since 2011, he has exhibited nationally, with notable exhibitions at the Chicano Park Museum, Galería de la Raza, Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, the David Brower Center, MACLA, Richmond Art Center, South Broadway Cultural Center in Albuquerque, and Sanchez Contemporary, where he presented his 2018 solo exhibition Contrapposto. His work has been recognized with the CAL Arts Fellowship in 2021 and a nomination for the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship in 2022.

Delgado also works in museum collections as a preparator, managing access requests, installations, and artwork viewings. This behind-the-scenes role provides rare exposure to works by underrepresented artists, reinforcing his commitment to equity, visibility, and representation in the arts.

Delgado’s painting practice is informed by post-impressionism, the Mexican muralist movement, and Rasquache aesthetics, the philosophy of making the most from the least. His early work reflected on his parents’ lives and the labor that shaped his upbringing. Today, his perspective has expanded to include fatherhood, capturing the world through the eyes of his daughters and finding wonder in everyday objects and moments. His work continues to honor working-class narratives, immigrant experience, and the quiet strength of those often overlooked.

Artist Statement – Adrian Delgado

I create work to honor the people who often go unnoticed, particularly immigrants and labor workers who build lives from scarcity with courage, creativity, and resilience. I see them as heroes, capable of creating possibility from almost nothing. Nothing about them is ordinary. They are the unsung forces that hold communities together, and my work seeks to recognize their humanity and immortalize their contributions.

My early work reflected on my parents, paying tribute to their sacrifices and the labor that shaped my upbringing. I painted street vendors, janitors, factory workers, and others whose stories are often overlooked, not to romanticize struggle, but to celebrate their strength, dignity, and quiet impact. I often depict subjects turned away from the viewer to grant them rest and reverence, allowing them to exist in the work without scrutiny while inviting viewers to consider their own privilege.

As a parent, my perspective has evolved. I now create work that reflects the world through the eyes of my daughters, rediscovering wonder in ordinary moments: gumball machines, sidewalk plants, food carts, buses, and construction cranes. These small observations become extraordinary, offering insight into both the past I inherited and the future I hope to cultivate as a parent.

My process is grounded in intentionality. I build surfaces from discarded museum crate wood, embracing Rasquache aesthetics and transforming materials once considered leftover into lasting works. My oil paintings are layered, textured, and expressive, often grounded in earth tones with bright focal points that draw the eye. These choices reflect both the materiality of labor and the resilience of the people I paint.

My works are created to honor the unseen, to inspire my children and viewers to recognize their privilege, and to acknowledge the labor and sacrifice that shape our world. They invite reflection, connection, and awareness, celebrating the quiet heroism that sustains families, communities, and society as a whole.