Da Ron Vinson is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and director whose practice encompasses live performance, video, painting, and sculpture. Their work is driven by a commitment to engaging with the spirit of the trickster and embodying the “Black Christ figure”, a figure capable of transcending both mortality and the structures that name and define hir. Vinson’s practice is defined by indeterminability, discrepancy, and myth, with each piece serving as another “brick in the edifice” of their larger artistic vision. Rooted in the traditions of experimental theater and performance art, they invite participants into ritualized experiences, constructing dense, poetic, and embodied worlds that fuse the absurd with the profound. At the center of Vinson’s practice is an ongoing inquiry into relationships, Blackness, gender, and embodiment as fluid, evolving conditions. Through self-experimentation and exchange, they engage the gaps and distortions of memory, moments of self-effacement, and forms of social critique. Their work unfolds in vivid visual vignettes that tend to linger. In performance, Vinson draws on a logic of disorientation and sudden clarity. Across installations and live work, they place the Black figure within spaces that both stretch and challenge familiar frameworks of representation.
DA RON N. VINSON
Born in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
2028 MFA, CalArts School of Theater Directing, Valencia, CA
2024 BFA, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
*PERFORMANCES
2026
I WAS/ IN PARADISE, The Mojave Desert, CA, May 16 - June 26
‡ HEIL ° ; FOREVER, FOR NOW #3-4, Performer, The BOX, Los Angeles, CA, January 8, 18
2025
‡ HEIL ° ; FOREVER, FOR NOW #1-2, The BOX, Los Angeles, CA, December 11, 17
MISS/MR. CONTENTED LEAST #1-3, Los Angeles, CA, August 3, 10, 19
PULL TUG PULL #6, Department of Homeland Security, Los Angeles, CA, October 16
PULL TUG PULL #5, Houses of Parliament, London, UK, May 16
PULL TUG PULL #4, Embassy of Israel, London, Uk, May 16
RICHARD PRYOR BECOMES GEARLDINE AKA SISYPHEAN ANY FLAG AMERICAN FLAG
STAND-IN, Hollywood, CA, January 20
2024
THE BATTLE OF LONG BEACH..., BLUM, Los Angeles, CA, December 21
THE TRAMP & AMERICA THE BITCH GODDESS OF THE UNIVERSE WALK CALIFORNIA,
Sylmar, Van Nuys, Bakersfield, Stockton, Sacramento, CA, August 29, 28
PULL TUG PULL #3, West Los Angeles Police Station, Los Angeles, CA, August 2
PULL TUG PULL #2, Consulate General of Israel, Los Angeles, CA, August 2
PULL TUG PULL #1, Republican Party of Los Angeles County Office, Los Angeles, CA, July 19
ROLL OUT OL’ CAB, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA, May 10
DORTHY IN OZ, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA, March 15, 16, 17
2023
A PENNY FOR PIECE #3, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, December 30
A PENNY FOR PIECE #2, Metropolitan Courthouse, CA, December 4
A PENNY FOR PIECE #1, Otis College of Art and Design, December 14
FILM / THEATER
2026
Kay Whale, Character: Question, Director: Asher Hartman, Los Angeles, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
(* Indicates Performance)
2024
*Roll Out Ol’ Cab | Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA 2023
*Free white & 21 | Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
*Take the meat and throw the bones out | Galef Fine Arts Center, Otis
College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
If I Kissed It, Would That Make It Better?, Galef 107, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
I Will Dismantle This Oppressive Establishment Board by Board, Galef 107, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
Camp Camp, Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
Weigh Heavy, Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
3 makes 4, Bolsky Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Playa Vista, CA
PRESS
We re-created radical covers from High Performance, the L.A. magazine made for and by artists |By Angella d’Avignon | Los Angeles Times