Hermana/Hermano/Hermanx

Alyssa Avilés
Arleene Corea Valencia
Rose D’Amato
Paola de la Calle
Gina M. Contreras
Liz Hernández 
Kevin Lopez Pardillo
Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán
Valeria Olguín 
Marcel Pardo Ariza
Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa  
Daniela Tinoco
Angela Zamora

November 7 – December 27, 2025
Reception: Friday November 7 5-8pm

Presented at Et al. Gallery, San Francisco
Organized by Victor Saucedo and Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa
Supported by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant

Hermana/Hermano/Hermanx started as a joke between friends. When we’d run into each other at openings, studios, or random corners of the city, someone would nod and say, “¿Qué pasó, Hermano?” or “Hola, Hermana.” It was a playful code, half sincere and half teasing, that became a way of recognizing each other in a scene that rarely saw us reflected back. Over time, that small greeting turned into something deeper: a quiet network of care, a reminder that we exist here, together, shaping the Bay in our own image.

What began as an inside joke became a proposal. The exhibition gathers a generation of Latinx artists—friends, collaborators, and peers—who have been building a body of work that deserves to be recognized as part of the Bay Area’s ongoing art history. Some are finding their stride locally, others nationally and internationally, but all continue to create despite the instability and uncertainty surrounding the arts today.

It’s surprising that these artists haven’t stood together in one room before, given how much of the Bay’s pulse they already hold. With all they’ve made, individually and collectively, their presence across exhibitions, residencies, and public projects feels undeniable. Hermana/Hermano/Hermanx simply makes visible what has long been happening: a generation sustaining one another through friendship, persistence, and the shared act of making.

In the last few weeks, that persistence has felt even more urgent. Following threats from the Trump administration to deploy federal officers, agents briefly arrived in the Bay before retreating, yet ICE arrests continue here and across the country. Within that atmosphere of fear and fatigue, this exhibition becomes more than a gathering. It is a gesture of care and defiance, an insistence on visibility and connection when both feel under threat.

At the same time, Hermana/Hermano/Hermanx looks forward. It welcomes new voices into the fold—artists whose practices echo, challenge, and expand the ongoing dialogue of what the Bay can be. It is a bridge between generations and a reminder that building community means leaving the door open for those still arriving.

Together, we propose what we jokingly call the Hermanx School: a movement without manifesto, held together by humor, mutual care, and the understanding that art and politics have never lived apart. What began as friendship has become a shared language for survival. Amidst erasure and exhaustion, we keep showing up again and again, for our work, our communities, and for each other.

Hermana/Hermano/Hermanx is less a conclusion than a continuation, a gathering that insists on tenderness as a form of resistance and on friendship as the ground from which new histories emerge.