Bill Rangel

In 1992, Moral Majority co-founder, Jerry Falwell, sent out an urgent fundraising message to his flock describing a drawing of mine as "The most malicious attack ever on Christ!” My illustration was part of an image and text project titled The Dawns We Shanghied Together in Each Others’ Arms, Exhausted, by the artist collective, Powers of Desire. We had submitted it to Movement Research, which published it with NEA money. Falwell saw this as an opportunity to separate his sheeple from their cash.

I’ve been making art for forty plus years. From a very young age, the political action of the gay rights movement that I saw on the evening news or read about spoke to me directly. I could see that my kind were pawns in a deadly political game that’s still in play today. I knew I had to do something about it. The knowledge that times were changing for queer people has led me down a path of mindful rebellion in my life and art. 

2014 - Pop-Up Broadway - historical portraits commissioned by CARS for Mayor Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative - Los Angeles, CA 

2013 - Seven Beauties - solo show - Echo Park Rising event - Echo Park, CA

2012 - Gushers - solo show - part of the Echo Park Art Walk - Echo Park, CA

2010 - The Mayors Rotating Art Exhibit - group show - City Hall - Los Angeles, CA

2007 - Stucco - solo show - Eastside Studios - Los Angeles, CA

2005 - Latino New Works Festival: Que Viva La Evolution - group show curated by Leo Garcia - Highways Performance Space - Santa Monica, CA

2004 - The Leopard Spots: Between Art, Performance and Club Culture - group show curated by Alex Donis - 18th Street Arts Complex - Santa Monica, CA

1999 - Bill Rangel: Portals, Pains, and Interviews - solo show - 15 year retrospective - Advocate Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1997 - Wish List - solo show - Stepping Gallery - SDSU Imperial Valley Campus - Calexico, CA

1996 - Unknown Throne - solo show - Highways Gallery - Santa Monica, CA

1991 - VIVA!'s Mexico: Too Many Years of Denial, Invisibility, and Silence - group show - Beyond Baroque - Venice, CA

1990 - Spiritual Sexual Surgery - exterior mural - LACE - Los Angeles, CA

1987 - Salon des Independants - group show - Richard/Bennett Gallery - Los Angeles, CA

1987 - Paintings 1976-1986 - solo show - ten-year retrospective and lecture - Pierce College - Woodland Hills, CA

1986 - Electric Saint Allegories - solo show - Mezzanine Gallery - Sacramento, CA

1986 - Sacramento Area Group Gallery Exhibition - group show - Djurovich Galleries - Sacramento, CA

1986 - Artists for Disarmament - group show - Abstraction Gallery - Los Angeles, CA

1982 - California Exposition - group show - Sacramento, CA