Artist Walkthrough & Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop with Matthew Valdivia
Saturday, November 14 | 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM | Free
Join artist and writer Matthew Valdivia for a walkthrough of his photographic series in the current exhibition, Blood Memory, followed by an ekphrastic poetry workshop exploring writing in response to visual art.
Created for the exhibition, Valdivia’s series explores Indigenous blood memory among people from different tribal nations living in the San Diego region. His photographs appear alongside personal reflections from participants, bringing their experiences of cultural continuity and relationships with ancestral knowledge into the gallery. During the walkthrough, Valdivia will discuss the project and his approach to storytelling through photography.
The workshop will introduce ekphrastic poetry—poetry written in response to an artwork—and invite participants to develop their own poems through close looking. Drawing on works in the exhibition, participants will explore how an image can prompt language and connect with personal memories.
No previous poetry experience is necessary.
About the Artist
Matthew Valdivia is a multidisciplinary artist and writer of Indigenous P’urhépecha and Otomí descent through his paternal line. Originally from Southern California’s High Desert, he lived in Baltimore before relocating to San Diego. Working across photography and literary forms, his practice explores Indigenous sovereignty, ancestral memory, and relationships to land.
Valdivia holds a BA in literature and writing studies from California State University San Marcos and an MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University. A recipient of the Sarah B. Marsh-Rebelo Award, his writing has appeared in PRISM International, Quarterly West, Sycamore Review, and The Los Angeles Review, among other publications.
His current book manuscript, Everything Like Yellow Turmeric, is a hybrid narrative that draws on ancestral memory and community obligation to examine connections between migration and adoption, trade flows, and environmental catastrophe. His photographic and oral narrative work considers how these forms can support healing and self-representation in Native communities, with the goal of building an archive of urban Native histories in the San Diego region.
