bio

Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin, painter, poet, and performance artist has been an arts leader in Los Angeles for over fifty years. She was born and raised in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles. Vibiana is an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights, women’s issues, and the peace movement – using art and poetry to convey her views. Her recently published Protest Art and Poetry book, Chicana On Fire is commended. “Aparicio-Chamberlin has single-handedly raised the Chicana Artist Activism aesthetic and cultural standards within American Art History. Amazing!” –Denise Lugo, Professor Emeritus, Getty’s Pacific Standard Times, CSUCI, Chicana/o Art History.
 

Her illustrated poems are published in Inscape, El Canto de los Delfines, The Pasadena Weekly, The Los Angeles County Latino Heritage Month Calendar, and Bards of Southern California. Her art is on view at The Latino Museum, Pomona, the office of the Mayor Los Angeles, the office of the Mayor of Pasadena, and recently at La Plaza de Arte y Cultura, Los Angeles. Exhibitions also include The Armory Center for the Arts, The Pasadena Museum of History, The Vincent Price Museum, East Los Angeles, La Casa de Cultura, Tijuana, and the Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.

Aparicio-Chamberlin’s art has been featured in The Pasadena Weekly, Southwest Art magazine, Artweek, Latin Style, and recently in the book, Triumph Of Our Communities, Four Decades of Mexican American Art. She is also featured in the Chicano art film, A Language of Passion by Cunliffe, and in the Mexican television series, El Otro Mexico by the Mexican Ministry of Education.

Awards include The Donald A. Liercke Award in Communications from PCC, a City of Pasadena Proclamation from Mayor Victor Gordo for cultural work on behalf of public school children, and an award from Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, for excellence in art and poetry.

Most recently Aparicio-Chamberlin was awarded by the Pasadena Mexican American History Association, The County of Los Angeles, and the California State Senate and Assembly for leadership in the arts and commitment in honoring the cultural life of the Mexican-American community, and for her civic pride demonstrated by numerous contributions for the benefit of all the citizens of the Los Angeles County. 

Vibiana’s role in the Chicano Moratorium of August 29, 1970 as an arts activist and leader was enacted in the theater production, 2012 Meets 1970. The play was performed at La Plaza De La Raza’s Margo Albert Theater by About Productions Young Theater Works. The cross–generational play written by students from Monterey High School is based on interviews of her as participant in the 1970’s Chicano Anti-Vietnam war protest.