Los Abuelos
2020 - Painting (Painting)
142 x 170 cm
Manuel Solano
Since Manuel Solano became blind, they developed a technique that relies on audio descriptions that allow for an assistant to place pins and threads on a grid that guides the artist’s hands through the surface. In Los Abuelos , the artist works with a canvas the size of their body, allowing intense interaction with the wet paint. This kind of tactility creates a complex entanglement of color masses alternating sharp and blurred details, giving the image an erratic and affective atmosphere just as our fond memories often appear to us. The painting takes us back to Solano’s early childhood in Mexico, in the late 80s. This compelling domestic scene also reveals the country’s unequal and patriarchal social structure, which is nevertheless projected on that little boy. Nowadays, according to the artist, their memory is archival and visual, being their sole source of imagery: “even to this day I can walk into a room and remember what it looked like, or I can listen to a movie, and remember what it looked like. I remember so many details from so many things I saw and they’re going to be with me for the rest of my life. It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time”. Through their striking visuality, Solano reminds us that what constitutes us is a combination of our interactions with the images we come across and to which we are subject to. By delving into this highly personal repertoire, we can analyze and deprogram involuntarily inherited social structures and power relations; the binary gender division itself.
Manuel Solano, who is non-binary and prefers plural pronouns, was an emerging 26-year-old artist when they lost their sight to an HIV-related infection in 2013. Unwilling to be hindered by their condition and urged on by their friends, Solano returned to work. But rather than the experimental art of their earlier years, they began anew with a series of expressive portraits and word paintings, titled “Blind Transgender with AIDS”. Working almost exclusively with paint on either canvas or paper, mining their memories of pop culture and past times while applying the paint with their hands, Solano created an impressive body of work. Because Solano draws from memories, the pop stars and formidable female figures they select for commemoration are an autobiographical pantheon of the painter’s formative influences. While Solano transcends fixed gender in their personal identity, their work has the electric energy that drag generates from the friction between exaggerated gender stereotypes.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Gabriel Orozco
2002Gabriel Orozco comments: “In the exhibition [Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002], I tried to connect with the photographs I took in Mali in July...
© » KADIST
Javier Castro
2014In the video Blanco sobre Blanco (White on White) , we see a white man appearing in a white screen embedded into a white wall— alluding to Malevich’s White on White series...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Reading in isolation: ‘Others’ is Not a Race and Interpreter of Winds | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles April 9, 2020 By Kathy Rowland (913 words, 4-minute read) Last November, when there was nary a thought for social distancing, and Corona conjured up visions of lime wedges and grimy bars, I reread Rex Shelley’s 1991 debut novel, The Shrimp People ...
© » KADIST
Howard Becker in conversation with Franck Leibovici Tuesday, November 26, at 7 p.m On the occasion of the publication of Thinking Together by Howard Becker and Robert Faulkner, within the framework of the investigation (des formes de vie) – une écologie des pratiques artistiques realized by Franck Leibovici at Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers (2012)...
© » DAZED DIGITAL
You can now bag tickets to see London’s fashion trailblazers in the flesh | Dazed â¬…ï¸ Left Arrow *ï¸âƒ£ Asterisk â Star Option Sliders âœ‰ï¸ Mail Exit Fashion Round-up Hosted by LFW partner 1664 Blanc, the series of talks at Selfridges will feature NEWGEN designers including Aaron Esh and Tolu Coker – plus more fashion news you missed 10 February 2024 Text Elliot Hoste This February, it’ll be exactly 40 years since our capital opened its doors to the world’s fashion industry...
© » KADIST
Adriano Costa
2014Westminster Agua Viva is made from Westminster City Council(‘s) recycling bin bags, glued together, that the artist has painted and cut or cut and painted...
© » SLASH PARIS
Prix Marcel Duchamp — 2023 — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Prix Marcel Duchamp — 2023 — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Prix Marcel Duchamp — 2023 Exposition Techniques mixtes À venir Prix Marcel Duchamp 2023 — Bertille Bak, Bouchra Khalili, Tarik Kiswanson et Massinissa Selmani © ADIAF Prix Marcel Duchamp 2023 Dans 9 mois : 2 octobre 2023 → 2 janvier 2024 Bertille Bak, Bouchra Khalili, Tarik Kiswanson et Massinissa Selmani sont les quatre artistes nominés par un comité de sélection composé de onze collectionneurs de l’ADIAF pour l’attribution du 23e Prix Marcel Duchamp...
© » KADIST
Gabriel Pericas
2014“Weight & velocity (cat on router)” is a duo of two humorous photographs of a cat lying on a computer router...
© » SLASH PARIS
Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 — Analix Forever Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 — Analix Forever Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 Exhibition Photography, mixed media, video Upcoming Guillaume Chamahian, Le baiser, 2023 Impression sur plaque de grès Guillaume Chamahian Détritique 2 In 2 days: Wednesday, December 20, 2023 3 PM → 9 PM Artiste du réel, de ses représentations, traitements et retraitements, Guillaume Chamahian travaille à la croisée de la photographie documentaire, de l’art conceptuel, de la dénonciation politique et l’art d’investigation...
© » KADIST
Kubra Khademi
2020Kubra Khademi’s work celebrates the female body and in her detailed drawings and paintings she portrays female bodies floating on white paper...
© » KADIST
Kelly Sinnapah Mary
2021Notebook 10 , l ‘enfance de sanbras (The Childhood of Sanbras) series by Kelly Sinnapah Mary is a sequel to an earlier series by the artist titled Cahier d’un non retour au pays natal (2015)...
© » KADIST
Regina José Galindo
La Sombra (The Shadow) is a video of Regina Jose Galindo performing with a moving Leopard tank...