Oliverio V. Rodriguez

Oli Rodriguez (they/he) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and poet holding the rank of Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Their work critically examines queerness, gender performance, and the AIDS pandemic through lens-based art, documentary film, and poetry. Rodriguez’s research integrates historical movements in gender, racial, and feminist studies, with a focus on intersectional representation. They are the author of Papi, an artist book archiving Chicago’s queer POC community during the 1980s AIDS crisis, and creator of the documentary Papi's Pregnant (2025).

Notable exhibitions include Papi, Papi, Papi at Iceberg Projects (2021) and Art AIDS America (2017). Awards include the Pulitzer Centre’s 1619 Education Project Grant (2021) and a DVID Fellowship (2020). Courses taught include SI: Video: Artist as Storyteller (Summer 2025) and Trans* Pictures (Spring 2025), exploring transgender representation in media and theory. Rodriguez’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine and distributed by Video Data Bank.