Liliana Guzmán

Growing up, I attended Catholic school in a small town in Indiana from age 10 to age 18. Being one of the only Latinx students and feeling neither completely American or completely Colombian, I felt a push and pull between these two facets of my identity. In this piece, titled Quinceañera, I envision interactions between both my younger “Catholic American self”  and “Latina self”.

The two figures in blue and red collared shirts and khaki pants reference my middle school uniform, while the figures in white collared shirts reference the color we had to wear in ninth grade. Clothing and its colors and patterns play a specific role in signifying a period in my life and a part of myself; like a costume you wear as a pious Catholic student or a feminine Latina. This also calls upon the expectations and restrictions of the female body, how a woman is supposed to look, or act, or feel a certain way regarding her ethnicity, gender and sexuality. In the upper right hand we see a figure in a pink dress which references my quinceañera (a special coming of age celebration that takes place on a girl’s 15 birthday common in Latin America). Along with other clothing details, the dress is specifically modeled off of the dress I wore at my own quinceañera. Throughout the series Next to Myself I visualize these layers, and how my perception of my own body and identity has been shaped through these experiences in my life. 

Liliana Guzmán is a photographer and painter whose artwork entwines topics of the body, memory, sexuality, and the hidden landscapes of the self.  Born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Indiana, Liliana completed her BA at Earlham College with a double concentration in Photography and French and Francophone Studies. Throughout high school and college she traveled abroad to Mexico, Ecuador, and France studying language and studio art. In May of 2021 Liliana completed her MFA in Photography at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design at Indiana University Bloomington.  

Her photographic practice incorporates a wide range of techniques and mediums from film photography and alternative processes to digital photography, painting, and drawing. Through the recurring subject matter of hands, touch and gesture, Liliana’s artwork expresses touch as not only a formative and intimate experience but as one that establishes both internal and external connections within ourselves and those around us.

Most recently she has exhibited at the Soho Photo Gallery, the Indianapolis Art Center and Manifest Gallery where she was a finalist for the Manifest Grand Jury Prize for 15th exhibition season. Her series Next to Myself was included in the 2021 Lenscratch Student Prize: 26 to Watch and will be exhibited in her first solo exhibition at the Amalie Rothschild Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland in May of 2022.