Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present an installation of photographs by Camila Falquez at The Armory Show 2024, the artist’s and gallery’s debut at the fair, bringing together thirteen previously unreleased images from four different series shot between Colombia, Brazil, and Falquez’s studio in New York.
Falquez’s artistic process is holistic and intensive, managing the set design, styling, and creative direction of the shoots in which she photographs her subjects. The portraits on view at The Armory Show are partially wrapped in silk in floating frames. Blending textile with photography, the artist explores the intersection of adornment, identity, and historical narratives while reinterpreting the traditional use of draped fabric in Western painting. Using textile as an on-site medium, draping and arranging fabric in impactful, vivid colors, Falquez’s subjects explore different facets of growing, blooming, and becoming oneself, a transformative means of existing, presenting oneself to viewers, and transcending representation. In depicting the vitality, physical presence, and resistance of its diverse subjects, the portraits present alternative histories in the vein of Renaissance and Baroque portraiture to decolonialize narratives of the art historical canon and transform them into contemporary symbols that challenge and redefine concepts of power and beauty. As such, this collection of portraits radiates the light found in individuals who, as gender-non-conforming poet and performer Alok Menon described, “manifest the impossible.”
All unique editions, the portraits in this installation stem from four of Falquez’s ambitious projects: Compañerx (2023–2024), Being (2018–ongoing), Arewa (2021–ongoing), and The Orishas (2023– ongoing).
Compañerx incorporates photography, protest art, and video within the context of Colombia’s first bill to protect trans and nonbinary individuals. Made in collaboration with Plataforma Ley Integral Tran, writer Cesar Vallejo, and stylist Lorena Maza, the series was originally shown in Bogotá in July 2024. Being is a visual manifesto aimed at redefining and reclaiming monumental ideals, reshaping perceptions of power and beauty to highlight stories of survival and liberation often overlooked by colonial narratives. Arewa is a portrait series documenting the close relationship between Falquez and Arewa Basit, a trans performer and activist in New York City. This collaboration delves into the physicality of the trans experience and the process of self-discovery and becoming. The Orishas is an ongoing exploration of Latin American religious iconography within the African diaspora and its connection to gender identity. The series currently spans Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, investigating specific deities and religious figures in the Caribbean and Latin America and their potential to express ideas of freedom through a queer perspective.
The works in this presentation were made possible by producer Nandi George, makeup artists Kaiya Carlin and Kento Utsubo, and hair stylists Evanie Fausto and Chika Nishiyama.
Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present an installation of photographs by Camila Falquez at The Armory Show 2024, the artist’s and gallery’s debut at the fair, bringing together thirteen previously unreleased images from four different series shot between Colombia, Brazil, and Falquez’s studio in New York.
Falquez’s artistic process is holistic and intensive, managing the set design, styling, and creative direction of the shoots in which she photographs her subjects. The portraits on view at The Armory Show are partially wrapped in silk in floating frames. Blending textile with photography, the artist explores the intersection of adornment, identity, and historical narratives while reinterpreting the traditional use of draped fabric in Western painting. Using textile as an on-site medium, draping and arranging fabric in impactful, vivid colors, Falquez’s subjects explore different facets of growing, blooming, and becoming oneself, a transformative means of existing, presenting oneself to viewers, and transcending representation. In depicting the vitality, physical presence, and resistance of its diverse subjects, the portraits present alternative histories in the vein of Renaissance and Baroque portraiture to decolonialize narratives of the art historical canon and transform them into contemporary symbols that challenge and redefine concepts of power and beauty. As such, this collection of portraits radiates the light found in individuals who, as gender-non-conforming poet and performer Alok Menon described, “manifest the impossible.”
All unique editions, the portraits in this installation stem from four of Falquez’s ambitious projects: Compañerx (2023–2024), Being (2018–ongoing), Arewa (2021–ongoing), and The Orishas (2023– ongoing).
Compañerx incorporates photography, protest art, and video within the context of Colombia’s first bill to protect trans and nonbinary individuals. Made in collaboration with Plataforma Ley Integral Tran, writer Cesar Vallejo, and stylist Lorena Maza, the series was originally shown in Bogotá in July 2024. Being is a visual manifesto aimed at redefining and reclaiming monumental ideals, reshaping perceptions of power and beauty to highlight stories of survival and liberation often overlooked by colonial narratives. Arewa is a portrait series documenting the close relationship between Falquez and Arewa Basit, a trans performer and activist in New York City. This collaboration delves into the physicality of the trans experience and the process of self-discovery and becoming. The Orishas is an ongoing exploration of Latin American religious iconography within the African diaspora and its connection to gender identity. The series currently spans Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, investigating specific deities and religious figures in the Caribbean and Latin America and their potential to express ideas of freedom through a queer perspective.
The works in this presentation were made possible by producer Nandi George, makeup artists Kaiya Carlin and Kento Utsubo, and hair stylists Evanie Fausto and Chika Nishiyama.
