with this body: a tool, a canvas, a portal

About

San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries is pleased to present "with this body: a tool, a canvas, a portal", a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Bay Area artists JoJo and adrian clutario, curated by Nicki Aquino, SFAC Galleries’ Summer 2026 curatorial intern.

"with this body: a tool, a canvas, a portal" examines the relationship between identity embodiment in practice and the queer and trans Filipinx diaspora. Through printmaking, performance, sculpture, and pre-colonial Philippine hand-tap tattooing (batok), adrian clutario and JoJo utilize their body to conjure the past and imagine queer and trans Filipinx futures. By subverting colonial narrative through an intentional assertion of (bodily) autonomy, they forge paths of resistance and freedom for the individual and the collective.

About the artists
JoJo (they/he) is a community-centered artist and culture bearer born on Raymaytush-Ohlone land (San Francisco) and raised by the Muni lines of the Excelsior District. Their work is inspired by their ancestors, Queer & Trans elders, and Bay Area culture. JoJo is a part of Ancestral Dreams Collective (@ancestraldreamsco), a group of Queer & Trans POC printmakers based in the Bay Area. They are currently an apprentice in batok, an indigenous Filipino hand-tapped tattoo practice. JoJo hopes that their art encourages young people to explore their history and use art as a tool to connect with community and ancestors. You can’t find them on social media, but if you see them on the street, feel free to say wassup!

Adrian Clutario (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Oakland, CA since 2014. Their practice involves a variety of techniques — sculpture, installation, furniture, performance, and fashion. Clutario’s queer Filipinx-American identity informs their work, imagining and creating different possibilities of our heteronormative and colonized surroundings. Deeply utilizing drag and craft sensibilities, Clutario exaggerates and blurs the lines of design, space, and familial lineage - striving to heal around diasporic generational trauma. Adrian Clutario’s work has been exhibited nationally and has received their BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2012.

About the curator
Nicki Aquino is an Asian Pacific Islander American artist, educational practitioner, and current student for the Museum Studies MA Program at the University of San Francisco. She received her self-designed degree in Education and Community Engagement with a minor in Asian American Studies from Pitzer College in 2021.

Prior to joining the USF community, Nicki served as the Filipinx Teaching Artist Fellow at Root Division from 2021-2023, in which she developed and facilitated culturally-centered, after school arts programming to youth at Galing Bata. She was also the Community Collaboration Coordinator at the Children’s Creativity Museum, in which she partnered with community organizations in SOMA Pilipinas (Balay Kreative, Galing Bata, SOMCAN) on culturally and historically grounded community arts projects.

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