Farley Aguilar

Farley Aguilar uses a distinct pictorial language to depict tableaux of evocative and unsettling painted scenes, pointedly interrogating the social facade of the community. Working from found photographs of crowds, portraits and historical reportage, the Miami-based painter probes social constructs such as group identity, political allegiance and cultural ritual. Aguilar uses all manner of brushwork, oil sticks and pencil to conjure scenes in delirious, lurid colour. Expressive application meets the tight, serrated outlines that spring the figures in his paintings from their textured backgrounds. Intervening with the construction of history via the archive, Aguilar uses targeted historical case studies and subtle juxtaposition as a prism through which contemporary societal constructs are made visible, processed and, ultimately, challenged.

Farley Aguilar (b. 1980, Managua, Nicaragua) lives and works in Miami. Recent solo exhibitions include HOW Museum, Shanghai, China (forthcoming); The Age of Effluence, Edel Assanti, London, UK (2024); South Florida Cultural Consortium, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, USA (2023); Fur & Flood, SPURS Gallery, Beijing, China (2022); Phantom Limb, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Closed Game, Lyles & King, New York, USA (2021). Selected group exhibitions include Recent Acquisitions, Akron Art Museum, Akron, USA (2022); THIS IS AMERICA, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany (2021); Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art, The Mennello Museum, Orlando, USA (2018) and Temporary Autonomous Zones, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA (2015). His work is included in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA; Long Museum, Shanghai, China; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; The Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA; Pérez Art Museum, Florida, USA; Brown University, Providence, USA; and the Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, USA.