Ayin Es: Relative Strangers
A Solo Show of New Paintings
Check the Pulse, 2023. Oil on gessoboard, 16 x 16 inches.
Craig Krull Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave. B3
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 828-6410
May 16 - July 4, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 16, 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Panel Discussion: Saturday, June 6, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Relative Strangers is a solo exhibition of new paintings by nonbinary artist Ayin Es. This collection from Es's Discarded Snapshots series addresses the politics of visibility through a queer lens and explores memory and photographic myth.
After their parents' deaths, Es discovered a suitcase full of vintage family photos. Riffling through the pile, Es noticed a pattern: their brother's life was carefully documented, while their own presence was incidental and unnoticed. This discovery sparked questions about how trauma and constructed memory fracture family and identity, inspiring Es to re-imagine the found pictures and add symbolic commentary to a complex family history.
By inserting their present self (complete with visible top surgery scars) back into scenes from childhood, Es transforms ordinary domestic interiors into charged psychological spaces where a queer child was present but invisible. Working in thick oil paint and water media with a naive style recalling outsider art and retro domestic interiors, each painting employs humorous allegories and sarcastic metaphors. Bright colors and vintage patterns cannot disguise the distance between relative strangers; some works include melting faces or weapons placed in plain sight—a knife concealed in an embrace, a handgun on the dining table—exposing the tension simmering beneath family love with dark wit.
Es, who changed their name from Carol Es in 2021, disrupts the heteronormative archive of family photography, insisting on visibility and representing those who long to be seen. Despite unsettling qualities, Relative Strangers draws upon estrangement and resilience while uncovering traces of reconciliation and hope.
Join us Saturday, June 6, 11:00 AM for Queering the Family Album: A Panel Discussion - an intimate conversation with Margot Anderson, Founder, the Laurel Foundation; Holly M., artist and educator; Philip Anderson, writer, critic, and contributor for CARLA (Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles); Matias Viegener, writer, artist, curator, and critic who teaches at CalArts; and exhibiting artist, Ayin Es, as we discuss themes of visibility, family dynamics, and trans identity in contemporary art.
In solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, 20% of all proceeds from this exhibition will be donated to The Laurel Foundation, which supports programs for children, youth, and families living with HIV/AIDS, transgender youth, and other at-risk youth populations.