Adriel Luis

Los Angeles

Adriel Luis is a writer, curator, and cultural strategist whose work approaches complex social issues with a spirit of curiosity, tenderness, and play. For over a decade, he served as the Smithsonian’s first Curator of Digital and Emerging Practice, where he challenged institutional norms by designing immersive experiences that embed radical experimentation and community care into the world’s largest museum complex. His practice is rooted in the belief that collective liberation can happen in poetic ways. He cut his teeth throwing block parties in Oakland and touring with his spoken word ensemble iLL-Literacy. Since then, he has collaborated with hundreds of artists and thinkers – transforming spaces ranging from the Smithsonian American Art Museumand Australia’s Asia Pacific Triennial, to an abandoned Foodland supermarket in Honolulu. He has inspired institutions worldwide through his community-centered curatorial method, and was recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s People Saving Places initiative. Whether publishing an anti-colonial manifesto in Poetry Magazine or examining Indigenous nuclear legacies as part of the art collective Bombshelltoe, his work remains focused on the intersection of experimental technology and cultural activism. Originally from the Bay Area, Adriel has lived in NYC, Beijing, and D.C. He is now based in Los Angeles, where he has expanded his focus to playgrounds, libraries, and other public spaces, assembling creative teams to reimagine ways to learn, play, and experience art together.