Edel Assanti have announced the representation of Farley Aguilar following his second exhibition with the gallery, The Age of Effluence, earlier this year, and in advance of his upcoming solo exhibition at HOW Museum, Shanghai, China.
Aguilar uses a distinct pictorial language to depict tableaux of evocative and unsettling painted scenes, pointedly interrogating the social facade of 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.
In the artist’s own words:
I believe an artist is an individual filtering all the stimuli in one’s environment. If you are constantly trying to figure out what is essential in existence, you can’t help but address social topics that seem unjust or dangerous. Even if it does nothing, just the expression proves someone existed and had a consciousness. That is what makes history so vibrant and gives us hope for change towards greater empathy and understanding.
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.
About the artist
Farley Aguilar (b. 1980, Managua, Nicaragua) is co-represented by Lyles & King in New York and Spurs Gallery in Beijing. 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). Aguilar’s 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. Aguilar lives and works in Miami.
