Seeds

Biographies

Writer/producer/director Travis Gutiérrez Senger

Travis Gutiérrez Senger is a Mexican American director, writer and producer. His recent project, ASCO: Without Permission, a genre-defying film about the Chicano, avant-garde art group ASCO, premiered at SXSW ’25 and was the Opening Night selection for the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, co-presented with LACMA. The film is executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna and has received support from the Ford Foundation, Film Independent, and the Dolby Creator Lab. His prior projects, Desert Cathedral, White Lines and The Fever, along with a number of shorts, have screened at top festivals such as Tribeca, SXSW, Chicago International Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival. He founded ANM Films, a premium film and TV company, focused on bold, progressive Latinx stories.

ASCO member Patssi Valdez

Internationally acclaimed Patssi Valdez is best known for her vibrant paintings, installations and early performance work with the avant-garde art group ASCO, of which she is a founding member. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Valdez received her BFA from Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and was named outstanding alumni in the 1980s. In 2005, she was named the “Latina of Excellence in the Cultural Arts” by the U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Valdez’s art has been featured at the Alma Awards and the Latin Grammys. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including from the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Brody Arts Fellowship in Visual Arts. Her art work is included in major collections, including the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; The San Jose Museum of Art, California; and the El Paso Museum of Art, Texas.

Learn more about Patssi’s artwork in exhibition at the NMMA >

ASCO member Harry Gamboa Jr.

Harry Gamboa Jr. is a photographer, writer, painter, and performer whose work highlights contemporary Chicano culture in his native Los Angeles. He co-founded Asco (Spanish for “nausea”), the East L.A. conceptual-performance art group active from 1972-1987. Gamboa’s work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (2023); AltaMed Art Collection, Rome, Italy (2022); J.P. Getty Museum (2021), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2020); Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C (2019), amongst countless other museums. He is the recipient of the Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship at CSU Los Angeles (2004), the Durfee Artist Award (2001), and the Flintridge Foundation Visual Artist Award (2000), and has been awarded by the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts (1990), California Arts Council (1996), and National Endowment for the Arts (1987 and 1980). Gamboa is on the faculty of the Program in Photography and Media at CalArts.