Mike Moreno

As a child, Mike was influenced by traveling carnivals and circuses, which opened his mind to artistic illusion and fantasy. His influences included artists Keith Haring, Salvador Dali, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Aztec and Maya cultures. He contains concepts related to fantastic alternative universes that exist outside our forced reality. His art incorporates the cosmic wavelength of Disco music.

He utilizes art techniques in tune with his New Mexican heritage, intertwining Mexican, Native American, and Spanish/New Mexican culture. Mixed media is his preferred choice. His art is a reflection of social issues, sexuality, spirituality, and how they relate to his experiences as a Queer person living with HIV/AIDS.

Mike has been making art for over 35 years and has exhibited his works in many cities across the U.S. he has worked for over 45 years as a teacher, artist, student, coach, community organizer, and activist.

In 1987, he helped co-found “VIVA”, a Los Angeles non-profit organization that worked to discover, empower, and promote Latino/a LGBTQIA Artists. Even after its closure, VIVA has remained a catalyst for many artists. Mike's work as an artist and activist is documented and/or referenced in several publications by Robb Hernández, including;

"The Fire of Life,"---2009

"VIVA Records 1970- 2000,"---2013

"Archiving an Epidemic" ---2019

University of California, Riverside publication; "Mundos Alternos- Art & Science Fiction In The Americas," 2017- by Hernández, Stallings & Szupinska-Myers.

Mike's artwork, "The Third Eye of Cyclona," (The Third Eye of Cyclona/Robert “Cyclona” Legorreta Headdress) was part of the 2017 Pacific Standard Time exhibit, “Mundos Alternos” at UCR ARTSBlock in Riverside, California. The exhibit also traveled to the Queens Museum in New York for exhibition in April 2019. The art piece has since been donated to The National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M., and resides there as part of its archives. Mike's personal archives are also part of the One Center Archive at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA.

Mike's most recent community work includes developing and coordinating the 2019 Belen Street Banner Art Competition for the Belen Main Street Partnership in Belen, New Mexico. This successful project featured over 25 local artists. Although unsuccessful, he also ran for City Council in Belen, but was one of the first openly Gay and HIV Positive people to run for office there.

His extensive community organizing experience includes serving as the National Volunteer Coordinator for the AIDS Memorial Quilt from 1994 to 1997. And as Volunteer director for the following: Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, 1997, AIDS Project Atlanta, GA, 2000, Los Angeles Shanti, 2003. His career as an activist includes capacity-building and collaboration development among non-profits over the years. Mike is currently based  in New Mexico, where he continues to volunteer and work on his art.