Neil “Clavo” Rivas, aka Tony Rivas, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work stems from his roles as a documentarian, educator, activist, and former community organizer. Born, raised, and currently based in L.A., he is a first-generation Salvi from a family of refugees, migrants, and exiles. His work is rooted in visual narrative being a critical tool for social justice, driven by legacies of resistance and resilience within his communities and family in and outside of El Salvador. Using his own photographic imagery, other historic photos, collected objects, and appropriated pop-culture iconography, he is invested in collective memory, aesthetic politics, and creating tactical interventions within social, cultural, and political contexts. He produces both short-term and long-term researched-based projects that have come in a range of forms, including multimedia installations, public interventions, web-based projects, performances, interdisciplinary works, and community-based practices. His work has been used for education, journalism, legal evidence, human rights advocacy, protest, and documentary films.
Rivas’ documentary work has covered numerous social movements and political events, such as the U.S. immigrant rights movement, Black Lives Matter, Justice for Trayvon Martin Movement, Occupy movement, 2009 Salvadoran presidential race, 2009 Honduran military coup, La Vela de las Intrépidas in Oaxaca, South Central Farm, California farmworkers’ movement, Salvadoran trans rights movement, Salvadoran campaign to prevent youth gun violence, No Queremos Fraude in El Salvador to combat voting fraud, School of the Americas Watch, U.S. anti-war movement, anti-child sex-trafficking in Cambodia, and 2004 California State University statewide walkouts.
From 2006-2016, Rivas produced Las Marchas y Intervenciones, a body of work consisting of photographs of rallies and other actions that he participated in within the U.S. immigrant and refugee rights movement, with a series of interdisciplinary projects through which those images were revisited, tactically transformed, and re-contextualized. The culminating project, Las Gran Marchas Revisited – is multifaceted and commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the two largest immigrant rights demonstrations in U.S. history, the March 25th & May 1st marches of 2006 in Los Angeles, in collaboration with main organizers and youth who participated.
The collection of projects also includes Remember Me Part II: Phantom Sightings at MacArthur Park, a site-specific public intervention featuring life-size cardboard cut-outs that revisited the 2007 police invasion of famous park in L.A. during a rally. The intervention was followed by a multimedia installation about the invasion and one-year anniversary intervention. The original photographs used to create the intervention were also used for a community-based newspaper and as evidence for police brutality victims during the invasion in a legal case that was won. Additionally, included is a project called Por Que Occupy – comprised of a billboard, sticker campaign, and participatory web-based platform that intersected the immigrant rights movement with the Occupy and Indignados (Spain) movements.
In 2011, he created Clavo’s School for Young Superheroes (SYS) – a traveling school inspired by the institute where the X-Men are educated that creates and implements project-based learning curricula centered around developing aesthetic sensibilities, critical thinking, and civic duty. In 2012, inspired by SYS, he co-created 20/20 FOTO – a cross-border art program between El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, in partnership with Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa and the CCA Center for Art and Public Life. The same year, he created the U.S. Department of Illegal Superheroes (ICE DISH) – the largest investigative agency in the U.S. dedicated to the apprehension and removal of “illegal superheroes.” ICE DISH is still active.
Rivas’ work has been presented nationally and internationally, in universities, schools, public parks, libraries, web-based projects, galleries, and museums such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, Museum of Latin American Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, National Palace of Culture of Guatemala, Museum of Art of El Salvador, Torrance Art Museum, and Cartoon Art Museum. His work has been published and written about throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia, and China by the likes of CNN Español, The Guardian (UK), NBC, Univision, The Huffington Post, The New York Times blog, The Washington Post, Democracy Now!, MTV, NPR, Lado B (Mexico), Prensa Contrapunto (El Salvador), ArtInfo International, Glasstire, Art Practical, Daily Serving, KQED, Colorlines Magazine, SF Weekly, San Antonio Current, Arkansas Times, Upworthy, and others. His work has been acquired by Michigan State University Libraries, Kala Art Institute, along with private collections in the U.S., Australia, and El Salvador.
He has been the recipient of several awards, grants, and fellowships, most recently from the Center for Cultural Innovation, California Community Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, and SEIU–United Service Workers West. He has done artist residencies throughout California and Guatemala, at sites such as Angel Island State Park, Kala Art Institute, Richmond Art Center, Intersection for the Arts, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, Galería de la Raza, CFCE Antigua, and El Nahual.
Rivas earned his MFA in Fine Arts at California College of the Arts and his BFA in Art Photography at California State University, Long Beach.
CV available upon request.