Sarah Biscarra Dilley

About

Sarah Biscarra Dilley (b. 1986, unceded Nisenan land, unratified Treaty “J” region) is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, writer, educator and member of the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash tribe currently residing in xučyun (Oakland), the unceded homeland of the Chochenyo Ohlone people (unratified Treaty “E” region).

Her interdisciplinary process is grounded in collaboration across experiences, communities, and place. Relating land and beings throughout nitspu tiłhin ktitʸu, the State of California, and places joined by shared water, her written and visual texts connect extractive industries, absent treaties, and enclosure to emphasize movement, resilience, sovereignty, and self-determination.

Her text-based, curatorial, and visual work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Sites of engagement include: California Polytechnic University (San Luis Obispo), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, California Historical Society, University of California at Santa Barbara, Berkeley, and Davis, SOMArts Cultural Center, First Peoples House at University of Victoria, Toronto Free Gallery, Open Engagement, Institute of Modern Art  (Brisbane, QLD), Artspace (Aotearoa), Vancouver Art Gallery, and Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA).

While much of her foundations are shaped by body, land and the worlds in and around us, she began her undergraduate studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe, NM), has a BA in Urban Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MA in Native American Studies from University of California, Davis, where she is currently a PhD Candidate in Native American Studies.