Ayin Es | Relative Strangers

Ayin Es (b. 1968) is a self-taught, nonbinary artist whose work is rooted in autobiographical storytelling. Emancipated at the age of fifteen from an abusive home, their work is often unsettling and raw. Es maneuvers between the precipice of memory and identity by disclosing their internal, lived experience while highlighting family estrangement, trauma, disability and gender politics. A native of Los Angeles who now lives in Joshua Tree, Ayin Es is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Pollock-Krasner fellowship, and is in the permanent collection of the Getty, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Es’ latest series of paintings originated from an old suitcase of vintage family photos. With playful, satirical tones and thick, textural oil paint, they recast these overlooked snapshots and replaced their younger self with aspects of their present self. This solo exhibition titled _Relative Strangers_ is a form of visual archaeology where Es scrutinizes the narratives beneath the surface of their family photos and rebuilds erased stories. The paintings reimagine these photos, incorporating their gender-affirming surgery scars, as well as smeared faces, dark rainclouds, and decorative hues of the 1960s and 1970s. It is a disruption of the family hierarchies that rendered Es invisible. Viewing the past through a contemporary queer lens, Es utilizes the process of making these paintings as personal repair and maintains that they are not only personal but political as well. Not because Es designed them to be, but because they exist in a world that has politicized their identity. The artist intends for the work to resonate with others within the larger queer and trans community, creating space for connection, understanding, and what often goes unspoken.