THE BIOGRAPHY OF CRYSTAL GALINDO

Crystal Galindo is a Yaqui-Xicana artist living in the San Francisco Bay area. Born and raised in Tulare County, Crystal grew up with dreams of being a well-known artist/figure painter. Her first drawings were in coloring books and the blank pages of bedtime stories shared among her three siblings. Determined to perfect her skill, she spent countless hours filling lined notebooks with her studies of figures, ranging from close-ups of faces to cholo style portraits. Crystal's main influence in the arts was her father, who gave up his own dreams of portraiture to support his family.

Crystal was self-taught until 2004, when she enrolled in drawing fundamentals and beginning painting at College of the Sequoias. Coupling her innate understanding of the human figure and technical instruction, Crystal's skill quickly evolved, supplementing the conceptual projects that began to take shape in painting form. Moving to the San Francisco Bay area, her work began to reach a larger audience, with social media helping to propel her exposure. She quickly became recognized for her bright, “confrontational” self-portraits and celebration of her culture. While still in undergrad at Sonoma State University her portraits traveled the state in various group exhibitions and galleries.

Crystal's popular portrait series Multifacetica spotlights womxn (friends, family and fellow artistas) in a way that focuses on the power and pride her subjects exude. Crystal's work has been shown in numerous venues across the state of California and currently continues to expand to galleries across the country and world. She is currently working on a new series, Xingonxs, to be debuted later this year.