Lorraine García-Nakata

Artist Committee Member

Lorraine (she/her) is an acclaimed visual artist whose work has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally since 1970, and she is recognized for her large-scale drawings and paintings as well as her mastery of mixed media, printmaking, installation, ceramics, and sculpture. A primary member of the renowned Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) since 1973, she has combined her artistic practice with decades of cultural leadership, including appointments as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Arts Commission—where she chaired the Art in Public Places Committee—and as a Congressional appointee to the National Museum of the American Latino Commission.

Her honors include a California Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship in printmaking, and her archive, “The Lorraine García-Nakata Papers,” is held in the Stanford University Library Special Collections. A founding member of the San Francisco Latino Historical Society, García-Nakata remains deeply engaged in social justice, community stabilization, and advancing “first voice” representation for communities of color. She is currently authoring two books, building on the themes of identity and history explored in her 2015 Copilot Press publication Chola Enterprises.