June 6 First Friday marks the start of Aurora’s Summer exhibition season with two new shows in both our Main Gallery and Efroysmon Gallery.
Juan Brenner’s series Genesis is filled with the beauty, aspiration, sanctity, and desire of the Guatemalan Highlands, where Brenner lives and works. In his images, as in the Highlands, traditional codes of power intermingle with a vibrant and vital youth culture, which mixes the ancient dress trajé with heavy metal t-shirts, ornate teeth art, and the ubiquitous cell phone. Published as a book in 2024 by Guest Editions, the large-scale prints in this exhibition of Genesis distill the grit, glamour, and always gold of the Highlands.
Brenner writes of his work: “For the last 5 years most of my work has been focused on understanding the complex phenomena pertaining to a very particular and important territory known as the Guatemalan Highlands. Starting from the Spanish invasion of Guatemala in the 16th century and its repercussions, then going through the imposed obscurantism that subdued and crushed the local reigns and finally a new colonial system that shifted the power balance in favor of the invaders, I've been garnering many ideas that have become key ingredients in my subject of research.
Genesis will be on view in Aurora’s Main Gallery until August 15.
Opening in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, The Whole Preposterous Ideology features beautiful, layered, multi-media work by artist Leni Mae Wiegand, who uses photographic light boxes, paper scrolls, and electronics-based sculpture to evoke the digital realm as a safe space for exploration of gender and personal identity. Wiegand writes of their work: “Queer bodies, particularly trans bodies, are often labeled as something to be "fixed" — entities in a state of error, a glitch. However, glitches aren't inherently negative; they possess power against systems expecting certain outcomes and strength in defying those systems. By embodying ourselves through digital existence and the safety that digital spaces provide, we can resist growing transphobia in the United States and transcend laws seeking to strip away our rights. By embracing the label of glitch, we create digital havens — vital places for exploring gender expression and personal identity without fear of punishment. Through the safety they provide, digital realities often become more important and vibrant than our AFK (away from keyboard) existence.”
The Whole Preposterous Ideology will be on view through July 18.