Manuel Solano

Introduction

“THE OLDER I GOT, THE MORE I REALIZED THAT ALL OF MY WORK IS ONE WORK. IT’S ALL ABOUT MYSELF IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. I ALWAYS PUT THINGS IN MY WORK THAT I SEE IN MYSELF AND HAVE THEN FOUND IN OTHER PEOPLE AND PLACES, SO THAT EVEN WHEN I’M PORTRAYING OTHERS, I’M ACTUALLY PORTRAYING SOMETHING IN MYSELF.”

– Manuel Solano in Conversation w/ Jo Lawson-Tancred, ARTNET NEWS, 2022

In 2014, Manuel Solano (b. 1987 in Mexico City, Mexico) lost their sight due to complications from an HIV-related infection. Since then, Solano has developed unique methodologies to continue an art practice which includes painting, video, and installation. The artist’s practice explores memory and identity, balancing the autobiographical with pop cultural imagery, focusing on processes of subject-formation through self-portraiture, insisting on our shared experiences whilst drawing from their personal history. Autobiographical works are inherently vulnerable, intimate, and proximate. Solano allows us tremendous access to their experiences in exploring the shifting and flexible position of their identity. Their portraits explore the relationship that memory and the imaginary share, how sincerity and camp operate together, and how popular culture is a container for our personal self, intimate relationships, and shared histories.

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Works