Local artist Ulises Peralta has been named the San Lorenzo Valley Museum’s 2025 artist-in-residence.
Peralta is a Oaxacan printmaker from Venice, Calif., whose practice centers on cultural memory, community resistance and the reclamation of suppressed histories.
His formal artistic journey began at Santa Monica Community College, where he earned an Associate Degree in studio arts in 2022. He later transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz, earning his Bachelor of Arts in studio art with a focus in printmaking in 2024.
Peralta’s work is grounded in printmaking as a primary medium—valued for its ability to translate ideas from thought to matrix with precision and urgency. His prints respond to the enduring impacts of colonialism, displacement, gentrification and cultural erasure, often drawing from personal experience and academic inquiry.
His career goal is to amplify the voices and histories of intergenerationally marginalized communities, offering visual platforms for empowerment and resistance.
“Printmaking is more than just a technical craft, I have found it is a tool for raising awareness, instigating change, and has the potential to foster an equitable world,” Peralta said.
The purpose of the Artist-in-Residence Program is to support the Museum’s mission to preserve and share the history of the San Lorenzo Valley. The program invites artists to expand upon the interpretation of historic sites, previous exhibitions, collections and archives.
“Our current Museum collection does not accurately represent the past cultural diversity of the San Lorenzo Valley. Therefore, artists are encouraged to take on projects to fill this void,” according to Laura DeAngelis, executive director of San Lorenzo Valley Museum.
Peralta has spent about six hours per week at the Grace Episcopal Gallery in Boulder Creek during the months of August and September. During this residency, he will create editions of 3D screen prints that highlight lost, suppressed or absent visual histories tied to the historic and contemporary cultural diversity of the San Lorenzo Valley.
“His goal is to breathe dimensional life into these histories and encourage viewers to experience the stories not as flat or distant relics, but as vivid, engaging and layered presences that still echo today,” DeAngelis said.
Peralta will present a free hands-on 3D screen-printing workshop on Thursday, Sept. 25, from 1-4pm, and his exhibition reception will take place on Friday, Oct. 3, from 5-7pm, at the Grace Episcopal Gallery, located at 12547 Highway 9 in Boulder Creek. He will also present an artist talk via Zoom on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 2pm.
The Artist-in-Residence Program at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum aims to support local artists by providing them with the time and space to create a new body of work that relates to the history of the San Lorenzo Valley. The program is funded in-part by the Arts Council Santa Cruz County.
