My name is Melissa Ortiz, and I started BASED art collective in the winter of 2017 with the initial intention of simply throwing a party, showing my work along side some of my artist friends. I quickly came to realize that the group was the art community I was looking for so long. I had been trying to find a space where I felt welcome, a sense of diversity within the community as well as the artwork. I wanted to be in a space that was LGBTQ+ POC driven, and showcased a variety of styles, mediums, and concepts. I saw that our group had potential to grow, so I hosted two shows at my house. First one in the winter of 2017, and spring of 2018. The art shows were taken in very well, and it was rapidly becoming too big of an event for my home. We are thrilled to be having our third show at our first public venue in Jamaica Plain Saturday, August 25th. BASED art collective is a group that cultivates a sense of place where we might not have the opportunity to show within the fine art gallery space, and underground scene in Boston that represents artists who are LGBTQ+ POC, WOC, POC, and women. A few things that I noticed over time that has made it hard to show work in Boston is inaccessibility to studio space, cost of using gallery space for diy art shows, and the general art world/dealers making decisions of what should/shouldn’t be shown (a consistent problem with the art world). Our collective aims to be a welcoming, nurturing environment that supports minorities, and marginalized artists to continue with their work no matter of theme or style. We aim to create, support, and give validation to the underrepresented, talented artists in the Boston area. This exhibit will be showing different narratives, and stories we tell through our varied mediums, and concepts. We’d love to see you on Saturday! We will be serving free beer through sponsorship via PBR, made to order burritos from my talented friend Rafa IG:@eatmoremexican, and a dope set list by my amazing friend, and local DJ @Math3ca. We’ll c u there ;}
BASED Art Collective
Summer Exhibit: The Stories We Told
Sat. Aug.25th
7-10p.m.
51 Heath st. Boston, MA
https://www.facebook.com/events/919541961565971/?ti=icl
