Welcome to DJ Javier’s World: ‘San Milano Drive’ at MCASB

Welcome to DJ Javier’s World:
San Milano Drive at MCASB

Homegrown Artist Opens First Solo Show
October 5 at Museum of Contemporary Art
Santa Barbara

By Ryan P. Cruz | October 2, 2025

Read more of the 2025 Fall Visual Arts preview.

In the final days before DJ Javier opens his first-ever solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, he’s busy at work transforming the space into San Milano Drive, an homage to his hometown, childhood, and Filipino-American heritage.

Javier remembers visiting MCASB seven years ago to see Barry McGee’s summer show, where the museum was turned into an “urban art surf shack,” and being blown away by the exhibit, which melded surf culture and street art in a way he’d never seen before.

“Being so into street art, graffiti, and surfing and skateboarding culture, I loved it and I came to the exhibit probably like five or six times,” Javier said. “I remember being obsessed with all [McGee’s] work and thinking, ‘I would love to do this one day.’ But I never actually thought it would happen.”

Since then, Javier has emerged as one of the most talented, hardworking, and well-known artists in Southern California. His murals grace the walls of public spaces, local businesses, and even elementary schools. His graphic design work has been used by local and international brands, from Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation’s Asian American Neighborhood Festival to collaborations with Vans, Star Wars, and the Los Angeles Rams. 

Now he’s set for his first solo exhibition, scrambling around MCASB in paint-flecked clothing, putting the final touches on a 20-foot-tall fluorescent-colored palm tree he painted on a column in the center of the museum.

He can recall the exact moment that MCASB Board President Freddy Janka and Director Dalia Garcia visited his Funk Zone studio to ask him if he wanted to do a solo show. “I just had a huge ball in my throat,” Javier said. “I couldn’t believe I was able to have this opportunity, being from Santa Barbara and growing up in Goleta.”

Now a young father of two, Javier said his perspective about his own childhood and his pride in his Filipino-American heritage have grown over the years. For this solo show, he wanted to give visitors a peek into his myriad of influences, including naming the show San Milano Drive, the street where he grew up in the El Encanto Heights neighborhood in Goleta. “This show is essentially a love letter to growing up there,” he said. 

He describes his upbringing as “very traditional Filipino-American.” At this San Milano home, he heard his parents and aunties gossiping in Tagalog as Filipino soap operas played in the background. The night before big backyard cookouts, a whole pig would be roasting at 2 a.m. while his dad and uncles kept watch. 

At the same time, Javier was surrounded by friends and classmates who showed him rap and punk music, skateboarding, streetwear, and graffiti. These influences swirled together, creating a uniquely Californian experience he would later tap into through his art.

“Growing up, I would see these very traditional Filipino values and perspectives, but as this Brown kid in Southern California, I also liked art and hip-hop and punk and all this stuff,” Javier said. “So, this show is a merging of those two things. San Milano Drive is where it all really started. That’s my childhood. That’s where I grew up, where I learned about 50 Cent and Tupac, and where my parents would cook traditional Filipino food.”

For his MCASB takeover, Javier wanted to create an immersive experience. In the center of the room, visitors can sit inside a custom-painted “Nipa Hut,” modeled after community gathering spaces found in the Philippines. Javier worked with Alex Guerena of Boom Boom Bike Room and Joanna Bea of Bea Furnishings to make a tricycle padyak — a nod to the pedicabs from the streets of Manila. 

At the entrance to the museum, Javier created the “San Milano Sari Sari,” a mini-version of a neighborhood Filipino corner store curated with goodies made by more than a dozen of his friends and fellow artists. “My big thing was, if I’m going to get this opportunity, I’m going to bring all my friends with me,” Javier said. 

Javier chose more than 40 paintings for the show, all displaying the latest evolution of his surehanded, bold style. Characters pop off the canvas with his familiar deep black outlines, while his newfound affinity for fluorescent colors gives the entire room a jolt of life.

The imagery ranges from Javier’s cartoonish characters (who wear hoodies, ball caps, sneakers, and headphones), to skulls, flowers, and fierce animals influenced by graffiti and tattoo culture, to references to skateboarding, surfing, and beach life. The most striking pieces are Javier’s dedications to his Filipino heritage: depictions of the stages of Filipino history, of pre-colonial warriors and shamans with blood dripping from their blades, farmers driving carabao (water buffalo) through the fields, or the Catholic Santo Niño figure. 

Javier said he hopes that, through his work, he can show more young artists that it’s possible to reach your creative goals. “I want to show students and youth that, if I could grow up on the other side of town and I’m here now, then it’s not impossible,” he said.

DJ Javier: San Milano Drive is on view at MCA Santa Barbara from October 5 through April 26, 2026, with a free opening reception on Sunday, October 5, from noon to 4 p.m. See mcasantabarbara.org.