Moises Salazar | Ni de aquí, ni de allá / Neither from here nor from there

About the Exhibition
“Ni de aqui, nide alla is about regret. It is about abandonment, loneliness and endurance. This exhibition is about acknowledgment. Acknowledgment of the pain, homophobia and trauma children face in this country. The works are about displacement, alienation and rejection. It aims to respond to a lifetime’s worth of guilt caused by growing up queer to immigrant parents. 

Ni de aquí, ni de allá is about mourning. It is about the neglect that queer children of color experience. It is a critical lens at the gratitude that first generation children are supposed to experience for being born in this country. The work is about disappointment. Disappointment that this mythical landscape, that promised opportunities and safety, did not live up to the expectations. 

Ni de aquí, ni de allá is about growing up poor, fem, and Mexican on the southside of Chicago. The collection speaks on the complexities of being grateful for the life one is given but coming to terms with the lasting affects it creates. This body of work focuses on the estrangement one feels because they are considered different. It is about not belonging anywhere and everywhere. It is about looking for community and never being satisfied. 

Ni de aquí, ni de allá is an exhibition dedicated for all the children that heard, no homo, fag, faggot, puto, and maricón in everyday conversation. It is for the kids that have nostalgia for a home they never experienced. It is for those who are alive today, not out of endurance and strength but out of fear and anxiety. This collection of work is for those who wished to find community within similar marginalized groups only to face rejection for being too fem, too brown, too radical. This exhibition is for those who are still looking. For those who are shape shifters and celebrate their complexities. It is for the many children that succeeded and continue to succeed at survival. It’s for those who despite everything hope for love and self-acceptance. This exhibition is a collection of painting and sculptures about a culmination of emotions and experiences dedicated for those that find comfort not being Ni de aquí, ni de allá.”

About the Artist
Moises Salazar is a non-binary queer artist from Chicago. Being first generation Mexican American has cemented a conflict within Moises Salazar’s political identity, which is the conceptual focus of their practice. Whether addressing queer or immigrant bodies, their practice is tailored to showcasing the trauma, history, and barriers these people face. Reflecting on the lack of space and agency they possess, they present queer and immigrant bodies in environments where they can thrive and be safe. The spaces the figures inhabit are colorful, gentle, soft, and safe. The use of glitter, paper mache, and yarn are important in their work because of their cultural and personal value. The work of Moises Salazar is meant to showcase the trauma, history, and current state that undocumented immigrants and queer folk face. It is by examining the intersections of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, queerness and the United States history that Moises Salazar addresses the reality of the barriers that immigrants and queer individuals face with the intention to begin to dismantle the myths and stereotypes used to criminalize and dehumanize them. Salazar’s paintings have previously been exhibited by HAIR+NAILS in FUTURE FUTURE (Jan/Feb 2020) and in FAIR (NADA + Artnet, May 2020). 

Gallery Hours
Saturdays/Sundays, 2:00-6:00 and by appointment through September 26.   

HAIR+NAILS’ Covid-19 Safety Plan
Gallery capacity will be reduced to 10 people at a time. Masks will be required in the gallery and individually-wrapped new masks provided. Several hand-sanitizing stations and a hand-washing sink in the gallery. HAIR+NAILS gallery attendants queried for symptoms before every shift. 6-foot social distancing requested in both the gallery and the frontyard/backyard waiting areas. Individual appointments available for visitors and their companions who live with greater concern for contracting COVID-19.      

This exhibition will show concurrently with exhibitions by Cameron Downey & Anat Shinar.