There might be no more appropriate word to describe artist and writer Anel Flores than “them.” Though the brush used to color Flores’ paintings might be held by a single hand, the artworks are the product of community.
“I work specifically for queer community, the voices of queer community,” Flores said during a walk-through of their 30-year retrospective of paintings, pastels, drawings, prints and clay sculptures set to open Thursday evening at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Hemisfair.
When asked by the institute’s director Sergio Zapata to create a solo exhibition during Pride Month, Flores agreed on the condition that they could also curate an adjacent group show of queer artists in the upstairs gallery.
“I do think that solo exhibitions are extremely important. And I also feel like there’s a major gap in the arts world for queer voices, queer stories, queer art … and especially in this triangle that is South Texas,” Flores said.
Solo show, with others
Flores’ solo exhibition I Am Home fills the first-floor exhibition spaces of the institute with more than 100 artworks produced since 1997, and the second-floor gallery holds the work of eight artists in various media: Erika Casasola, Anthony Francis, Hailey Gearo, Rose Two Feathers Hernandez, Julián Pablo Ledezma, Daniela Paz Talamantes Martinez, Ocelotl Mora and Red Rojas.
Together, the two shows are titled I Am Home: A Retrospective Exhibition of Anel I. Flores with Invited Artists in Queer Kinship.
Exhibition curator Mia Uribe Kozlovsky said Flores’ show title conveys the idea of “making a home within theirselves through their art, and sometimes that home not fitting anymore,” explaining that specific labels of ethnicity, cultural heritage and queerness might or might no longer fit as a person’s identity evolves.
“The amalgamation of all this work … of time periods and selves, so beautifully conveys that strength of evolution,” said Uribe Kozlovsky.
Loving the Valley
A 2023 oil on canvas titled Mi Vida Dreams en South Tejas gets to the heart of what Uribe Kozlovsky described as Flores’ evolution of shifting identities.
The painted self-portrait depicts the unclothed torso of Flores, with a clearly defined close-cropped hairdo rendered in a thick, deep orange brushstroke.
The celebratory self-portrait is as much about the Valley, as Flores refers to the Rio Grande Valley region around their Brownsville hometown, as it is about accepting, inhabiting and proudly displaying their queer identity.
With the arrival of Space X gobbling up whole tracts of land amid rising controversy surrounding migration, “instead of seeing that it’s a community of gorgeous people,” Flores said, many see the Valley only as “a crime scene.”
To counter dominant political narratives against intercultural communities, trans bodies and degradation of the landscape, Flores depicted themself with a radiant smile, communing with the natural flora and fauna of South Texas, only subtly interrupted by unnatural elements such as silhouetted power lines and non-native palm trees.
“As an artist, I’m creating spaces that don’t exist,” Flores acknowledged. They said that while, overall, the Valley is a safe place, for trans people “our bodies feel under attack in Texas because of the rhetoric. … It’s kind of bubbling in our bodies. So this piece for me was, ‘I’m taking it back. I’m loving the Valley.’ … I want to show how much I love it as much as I love my body.”
Deeper cultural bonds
And though others might take issue with trans bodies or queer identity, deep cultural ties can still act as bonds between people of different perspectives, Flores said. One example is the Virgen de Guadalupe, a ubiquitous symbol in Mexican communities.
Flores had been outed in their community in the early 2000s, which caused significant tension among close family. But Flores insisted that their mother, Norma Flores, attend the opening reception of their first solo exhibition in 2002 at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.
Despite the fracture in their relationship, Flores’ mother not only attended the opening but was seen enthusiastically explaining a painting of the Virgen to friends.
“It was a queer painting, but there was imagery that was cultural,” Flores said, “and that was a bridge.”
Though the purpose of her art is for trans and queer people to feel themselves seen and reflected, Flores said the bridge is for anyone to cross. For any person who sees I Am Home, Flores said, “I want them to feel like they’re at home.”
I Am Home: A Retrospective Exhibition of Anel I. Flores with Invited Artists in Queer Kinship opens with a free reception on Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through July 1.
