In Payasadas, which runs through July 12 in The Guild Room, Juan Arango Palacios presents a new series of large-scale textile drawings that address the artist’s relationship to the Catholic church. These works critique religious archetypes and offer a personification of a queer narrative, exploring themes of fantasy, vulnerability, and performativity.
As a queer body that was raised in a post-colonial context in Colombia, Palacios’ identity was shaped in the shadows of North American normativity. The artist’s sense of self was further confounded by a series of migrations experienced as their family searched for work and a more prosperous future. Moving through various homophobic and misogynistic cultures in Louisiana and Texas, Palacios formed a disembodied identity that is not attached to any specific homeland and which has always been challenged by the general norm.
Palacios’ practice works towards addressing the lived experiences of ambulant queer identities that have been marginalized within a diasporic or migratory context. Through the fluid and boundless medium of paint, the artist has been able to represent memories, places, people and archetypes that they associate with the safety, survival and endurance of queer bodies in spaces that challenge their existence.
This exhibition will be viewable by appointment only. To book an appointment, or for sales inquiries, please email art@epiphanychi.com.
