Less than a year after graduating Bailey Rios (‘24 Art) is building a flourishing art career, which predominantly focuses on oil painting. Currently living just outside of San Luis Obispo, where he has set up a painting studio for himself.
Before Rios graduated last spring he had already been accepted into a residency program at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum. He spent the last week or so of his time at University of California, Santa Cruz driving from his studio class on campus to Boulder Creek. The residency lasted during the summer, and ended with an exhibition featuring the work Rios had completed.
Rios’s success with The San Lorenzo Valley Museum led to two of his works being accessioned into the museum’s permanent collection, and currently has a piece titled Native Lands: Illuminated on display at the museum’s Felton location. He’s also working on a commission to paint the exterior of the museum’s Boulder Creek location. The museum there is housed in Grace Episcopal Church, and the painting is for a former director of the museum who worked there for 20 years.
As a mixed person of color, Rios utilizes his heritage when creating his artwork. He is Native American, Mexican, French, and African American and most of his work recontextualizes histories through painting. While a resident at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum, he painted from the museum’s collection of photographs which predominantly depicted white people. So, he added color and diversity into his painting displaying excellent artistry and highlighting the erasure of people of color. “I was re-defining those photographs with certain colors and expressions to reclaim the land that was once inhabited by Native American groups,” he says.
As a kid growing up in the Bay Area, art was not Rios’ primary interest. He instead preferred sports, and originally came to UC Santa Cruz as an anthropology major. His passion for art started in his senior year of high school, and he kept up drawing and painting as a hobby. “I was influenced by my peers in class,” he says. “I swiftly changed my path from being interested in sports to being interested in art.” In his sophomore year of college Rios decided to switch entirely to art, finding it to be the most fulfilling of his passions.
During his time as a student, Rios received multiple grants and scholarships including the Irwin Scholarship (the most prestigious award in the Art Department which is awarded by faculty nomination only) and the Eduardo Carrillo Memorial Scholarship (which supports outstanding art students with documented financial need). He also received a stipend during his residency to help cover the cost of supplies. Rios used the leftover money to purchase a shed which acts as his private studio and is set up on his grandparents’ property.
Inside the eight-by-ten white-walled room Rios is expanding his talents by “learning the ins and outs of the production behind painting, and not just the painting.” This involves a lot of woodworking and prepping canvases so they are longer lasting to what Rios describes as a “higher echelon of museum.”
Currently, Rios is applying to more residency programs and graduate school. He hopes an MFA will give him an edge in the artistic job market, as well as possibly leading to a PhD and teaching in the future. Rios’ dedication to his craft and nuanced care for elevating diversity through personal experience will lead him to a long career that manifests the excellence through justice and diversity that the Arts Division embodies.