LAURA AGUILAR (1959-2018)

Stillness #31.

Silver print, the image measuring 231.8x304.8 mm; 9 1/8 x12 inches, the sheet 279.4x355.6 mm; 11x14 inches, with Aguilar's signature, date, and edition notation 6/10, in pencil, on verso. 1999.

[1,200/1,800]

Laura Aguilar's groundbreaking work focused primarily on the queer, Latinx, and working class communities of her native Los Angeles, using portraiture to examine gender identity, class, and body politics, as well as mental health and representation within the art world. Some of her early series of work focused on the communities of which she was a part, including "Latina Lesbians," "How Mexican is Mexico," and "Plush Pony," the last of which documented patrons at a working class lesbian bar. But far more than a documentarian, Aguilar also turned the camera on herself, using her body to create vulnerable images investigating her own exploration of identity and relationship with her body and mental health. Now considered as vastly ahead of her time, the series "Stillness" brought Aguilar critical success. In these images, she posed herself as an element of the Southwestern landscape, curling her body around rocks or curved on the ground, her face turned away or shielded from the viewer. She is both seen and unseen, in work that is both poetic and poignant.