ERNESTO SOPPRANI
Founder Director, THEOFFCENTER; Director AIRspace Residency; 2015 EAP EMERGENCE Curator
Ernesto Sopprani coordinates location-specific and primarily community-based performance projects. Whether as an artist or as an arch-collaborator, his work is geared towards investigating innovative and self-sustainable models of presenting art and performance, specifically queer work, which expands upon the common definition of Queer and challenges his and his community’s relationship to live performance. As Director of THEOFFCENTER, Ernesto has overseen the production, curation and execution of dozens of site-specific, research-based art interventions, a number of large scale performance festivals, multiple performer centered art programs both at presenting houses (YBCA, Mission Cultural Center, Mission Dance, The Magic Theatre, SOMArts and others) as well as public spaces (BART trains, city streets, and a privately owned boxing ring). Ernesto, an experimentalist of prose and form at heart, is the co-founder of 11 11 ArtGroup, a creative partnership funded with life partner and collaborator Evan Johnson; 11 11’s goal is to create and present queer[ed] text based theatre and sound installations. Ernesto was participant of the 2011 YBCA’s Bay Area Now 6 program as well as a fellow for the 2011 Emerging Arts Professionals.
