Self-Portrait
BioGraphía / ABOUT:
Born in Downey, California, Jonathan Erick Guzman, aka Barbí Erick Guzman is a first-generation, Chicanx, Latinx, Queer, and Non-binary multi-hyphenate interdisciplinary artist, scholar, curator, educator, and writer who wholeheartedly believes in the power of Amor Propio Radical—because if you don’t love yourself, ¿cómo chingados vas amar alguien más? Central to their artistic practice is Radical Self-Love, where every facet of identity—the good, the bad, and the fabulously messy/abject—deserves its moment in the spotlight. Guzman’s work plunges into the chaotic beauty of identity politics, exploring the entrelíneas of their liminal identity and their blood connection to the Latinx Diaspora through a colorful mezcla of visual traditions, including photography, installation, printmaking, painting, sculpture, performance art, design, fashion/apparel, and more—because who says you can’t mix soul-searching with a touch of perra? Currently, Guzman is pursuing an MFA in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) (2025), all while earning a certificate in collegiate teaching—proof that yes, you really can do it all (and maybe juggle flaming torches, too).
While at Brown University, Guzman graduated with Honors (obviously, duh!), double concentrating in Visual Arts and Health & Human Biology: Medial Humanities Theme Track. Among various scholarships and accolades, they received the prestigious Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards, collaborating with faculty to develop two undergraduate courses: “Artist and Scientist as Partners” and “Artists and Scientists: Theory Into Practice.” These courses focused on applying contemporary neuroscience and narrative medicine research to the arts, specifically aimed at providing enriching arts experiences—primarily in dance and music—for individuals with Parkinson’s and Autism Spectrum Disorders. This interdisciplinary approach highlights the potential of integrating artistic practice with scientific inquiry and research, fostering a deeper understanding of both fields while enhancing the educational experience for students and participants alike.
During the pandemic in 2020, Guzman took a leave from RISD to work as a Senior Scholar Talent Lead at Success Academy in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, where they taught High School Photography and Visual Art con todo el corazón while mentoring fellow art teachers. In Guzman’s world, creativity is the ultimate superpower, wielded with unapologetic flair and a whole lot of maricón magic! Their artistic practice remains at the heart of their endeavors, navigating the labyrinth of identity politics and examining the sacred and the colonial through the lens of religion—particularly La Virgen (Barbí’s Drag MOM), who is basically the ultimate multitasker and MOTHER. Inspired by and utilizing their love of pop culture, Guzman channels the spirit of RuPaul, the Chicana drag queen Valentina, La Veneno, John Waters, Walter Mercado, their family and friends, queer icons, Latinx icon, and Charli XCX, along with 80s queer aesthetics, Y2K vibes, club lighting, and the infectious energy of AMOR.
Each piece bursts with symbols from the vibrant world of pop—neon club lighting, dance music, video games, and reality TV—blended with the magical worlds of Pokémon, tarot, and horoscopes, creating a visual language as eclectic as an Alejandro Jodorowsky x Sofia Coppola film featuring Barbie and Wigglytuff: Electro Bugaloo 2 - The Remix. As the founder of Vibrance Art Exchange, an art collective creating spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists to raise their voices through activism, collaboration, curation, and art collection, they believe in the power of community with a healthy dose of acción comunitaria. Through Vibrance Art Exchange Collective, Vibrance raised over $20,000 through community online support, fundraising initiatives, and an employee-corporate donation match during the 2020 pandemic to donate to nonprofit charity initiatives close to the artists’ specific activist scope. Whether through their art, activism, or mentorship, Barbí Guzman continuously uses their creative superpowers to inspire, uplift, and reclaim narratives that have been silenced for too long. Drawing inspiration from artists like Ana Mendieta, Laura Aguilar, and Coco Fusco, they engage deeply with their cultural roots while challenging oppressive systems.
Much like Gloria Anzaldúa describes in “Nepantla,” Guzman inhabits a liminal space, balancing their Chicanx roots and the colonial history that shaped them like a tightrope walker in high heels. Currently, they live between Providence, RI, and New York, NY, with their two mischievous demon kitties, Walter Mercado and Dolores Huerta, describing themselves as an “Iridescent Pink Jaguar,” passionate about intersectional identity, education, and building community—all while serving up just the right amount of SLAY!!!
Artist Statement
I am Barbí: a living, breathing celebration of Radical Self-Love, a Queer Latina, Chicana powerhouse who refuses to shrink, dim, or apologize for existing. My art is a reclamation—a fierce confrontation of cultural erasure, a glitter-drenched, unapologetic declaration of Queer Latina futurity. Rooted in the practices of rasquachismo, drag, brujería, and camp, I use photography, performance, and installation as tools to confront colonial histories, interrogate gendered expectations, and give voice to the stories that have been silenced. Through this, I embody the amor propio radical that bell hooks describes as “the foundation for resistance and renewal.” My work is a testament to the power of loving ourselves fully and radically, a decolonial act that centers us as divine in all of our complexities.
In this journey, I draw on the philosophies of José Esteban Muñoz, whose concept of Queer Futurity from Cruising Utopia fuels my artistic practice. I envision a world where Queer Latinx identities thrive, not as exceptions but as the pulse of tomorrow—a vision I challenge viewers to step into. Muñoz’s idea that “Queerness is not yet here—it is a horizon” becomes my creative mandate, as I use Jotographía—a blend of photographic and performative practices—to bring this horizon closer. Like the radical imagination of Sailor Moon or the transformation magic in Charmed, my work is a framework for radical self-invention, where self-love is not just a practice but a form of resistance.
The Girlypop Commandments serve as the guiding framework for my creative philosophy. These commandments are more than just aesthetic principles—they are a manifesto for survival, a blueprint for radical, multiversal self-empowerment:
1. Embrace Your Inner Girlypop: From the audacity of RuPaul’s Drag Race to the divine transformation of Pokémon’s Gardevoir, Girlypop is the magic of embracing your unapologetic fabulousness. It’s about claiming your space in a world that wants to diminish you, taking your complexity and wearing it like armor.
2. Decode and Reclaim Queer Semiotics: Drawing on Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism, I look to pop culture to decode hidden narratives of Queerness, from the flamboyance of Team Rocket in Pokémon to the magical subversion of gender norms in RuPaul’s Drag Race. These symbols are encoded in our media, and Girlypop is about claiming them, reinterpreting them, and making them our own.
3. Challenge the Limits of Masculinity: Through my persona Luke, I challenge the restrictive boundaries of machismo within Chicano culture, carving out space for Queer tenderness. Just as John Berger’s writings on the male gaze deconstructs traditional representations of power, I juxtapose strength with vulnerability to create a more expansive vision of masculinity. I take lessons from Judith Butler’s ideas on performativity, blending the sacred with the profane, the tough with the tender, and creating art that feels like an exhale of freedom.
4. Reclaim the Sacred Ordinary: Through installations inspired by Charmed’s Book of Shadows and the witchy energy of brujería, I transform everyday materials into sacred objects. This is the essence of rasquachismo—taking what is discarded, what is overlooked, and turning it into something divine. My work uses the subversive power of materiality, with pink cyanotypes and neon lighting, to give new life to the forgotten.
5. Pop Culture is a Sacred Archive: Pop culture is not just distraction; it is a repository of resistance and creation. As José Esteban Muñoz said, queerness is a utopian horizon, and we pull it into existence through our participation in these cultural narratives. From Pokémon to Sailor Moon, to the divinity of RuPaul, these references guide us in reconstructing identities and rewriting the rules. This is our sacred text, where every character, from Jessie and James of Team Rocket to Pokémon’s Sylveon, embodies our collective queer struggle for freedom and self-expression.
6. Healing is a Process, Not a Destination: In my work, healing is never linear. Drawing from bell hooks and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto’s notions of rasquachismo, I believe that growth happens in jagged, nonlinear ways. My self-portraits and performative installations reveal the intersections of pain and joy, trauma and transformation. Queer art is about transformation—taking what’s been broken and making it sacred, turning wounds into power. The pink ghost in my work isn’t a haunting figure; it’s a symbol of the parts of us we are often told to bury, the parts that are essential to our wholeness.
7. Embody Your Own Future: The future is ours to create, and I draw inspiration from Judith Butler’s ideas on identity as performance, using Girlypop as a tool for reinvention. My work explores the multiverse where we can be whoever we choose—every version of ourselves celebrated. Just like the magical transformation sequences in Sailor Moon, I embody multiple versions of myself through my personas—Barbí, Luke, and the pink ghost—each an extension of the multifaceted Queer Latina experience.
The concept of self-love extends far beyond personal healing; it becomes a political act—a refusal to participate in the oppressive systems that seek to silence, diminish, or erase us. By making art that reclaims our Queer Latinx narratives, I resist the colonial forces that continue to dictate our visibility. Feminism and Queer theory fuel my art’s commitment to liberation, as Sara Ahmed’s work on queer phenomenology and Michel Foucault’s ideas about power and resistance serve as intellectual anchors to ground my practice in the reality of navigating space as a marginalized body.
The world often wants us to shrink. But through the glimmer of radical self-love, through the magic of art and performance, we make space. We celebrate our presence. We reclaim the culture that was stolen, the bodies that were denied, and the joy that was dimmed. Through Girlypop, I ask you to step into this world of magic and possibility. Step into the multiverse where every version of yourself is worthy of love, power, and celebration.
In this world, we are the architects—and this is only the beginning
Contact Me: jonathanerickguzman@gmail.com
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