This artwork is a work of indigenous futurism. Inspired by the Nierika, a sacred technology of the Wixárika community, of which Edgar is a descendant. Nierikas are maps of the universe and are used as divining tools that help facilitate ancestral communion and transcendental experiences. Not only are Nierika used for locating oneself within the world, they are also used to create cosmologies, ontologies, and, in essence, reality itself. kïïka, which translates to “come closer” or to “cuddle up”, features a maximalist blend of personal and collective symbols, geometric shapes, and vibrant colors, combined with references to internet subcultures, abstract art, digital decay, and glitch aesthetics.

Artist Bio

Edgar Fabián Frías works in installation, photography, video art, sound, sculpture, printed textiles, GIFs, performance, social practice, and community organizing, among other forms. Frías is Wixárika and their family is from Mexico, though they have lived in the United States for most of their life. Their art addresses historical legacies and acts of resistance, resiliency, and radical imagination within the context of Indigenous Futurism, spirituality, play, pedagogy, animism, and queer aesthetics, weaving together the traditional and ancestral with the contemporaneous and emergent.

Born in East Los Angeles in 1983, Frías received dual BA degrees in Psychology and Studio Art from UC, Riverside. In 2013, they received an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, with an emphasis on Interpersonal Neurobiology and Somatic Psychotherapy. Frías received their MFA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley in 2022.

Their work has been exhibited internationally, including the Vincent Price Art Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Oregon Contemporary, MOCA Jacksonville, Project Space Festival Juárez, and ArtBo, among others. Their work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Taschen, Bustle, Los Angeles Times, Slate, CVLT Nation, Terremoto, Hyperallergic, and other publications.