Featured image: Little Siblings

El Arte de Pertenecer — The Art of Belonging

The Art of Belonging by Mabel Valdiviezo centers on racialized, undocu+ immigrants and their families, invoking belonging as a portal to radical solidarity.

Valdiviezo interweaves personal and collective memory by painting with watercolors and acrylics over archival photographs, depicting her lived experience of family separation and the yearning to reconnect with her family and Peruvian culture.

To mirror and subvert the plight of brown immigrant bodies across contested borderlands her mixed-media and documentary film allow her to remain intimate. Using a vibrant palette and luminous, layered emotion, her paintings honor the strength and courage immigrants carry through daily life.

Her practice explores art-making as an act of dignity and healing—both in the creative process and the viewer’s experience, where feelings of safety and belonging are absorbed and released. Through this lens, Valdiviezo’s work becomes a parable of our time, illuminating the immigrant experience and what it means to belong in this divisive era.

Mabel Valdiviezo‘s exhibition is on view from May 31, 2025 – September 1, 2025

Mabel Valdiviezo is an award-winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist living in San Francisco who since the 90s has created immersive works through film, video art, mixed media, and performance. Utilizing a poetic vocabulary, Valdiviezo explores migration, gender equality, and healing justice. Her practice is grounded in the Latinx community and her identity as an immigrant artist living between liminal spaces.

A self-proclaimed artist-techno-shaman born in Peru, Valdiviezo draws inspiration from Latin American culture and her grandmother’s ancestral medicine, while also being interested in the potential of tech art for social justice. Her films use traditional and experimental storytelling techniques, video archives, and evocative narration to reveal societal contradictions. Her luminous acrylic mixed-media paintings of transnational immigrant families depict their innate humanity. Valdiviezo’s work has been supported by CounterPulse and Galería de la Raza, and her documentary “Prodigal Daughter” on family and immigration is currently screening across the U.S. and internationally.

Small case

Young Family at Beach
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
16” x 21” X 1”
2016
NFS

Big case
Left to right

Immigrant Mother
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor
11” x 11” x 1”
2016
NFS

Otuzco Mining School Girls
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
12” x 12” x 1”
2016
NFS

Grandmother with Family
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
18” x 14” x 1”
2016
NFS

Mother and daughter # 2
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
25” x 18” x 1”
2016
NFS

Little Siblings
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
10” x 14” x 1”
2016
NFS

Ancestral Roots
Mixed Media: photography, acrylic and watercolor on canvas
14” x 11” x 1”
2016
NFS

The Ramp Gallery is an artist-driven exhibition space at SOMArts that is currently accepting applications for four-week long solo and group shows. An opportunity for entrepreneurial artists to ramp up their careers by exhibiting at one of San Francisco’s most dynamic hubs for art and community, the high-visibility location of The Ramp Gallery is adjacent to the main entrance of SOMArts and open to all local artists in the Bay Area. To learn more about the space please visit, The Ramp Gallery.