Salon #63 — Gabriella N. Báez and Oscar B. Castillo

Join us for an in-person salon with artists Gabriella N. Báez, discussing La gente deprimida tiene sexo sucio y ganas de morir (Raya Editorial, 2022), and Oscar B. Castillo, talking about Esos que saben (Raya Editorial, 2022).

Address will be provided when RSVP confirmed starting November 25.

La gente deprimida tiene sexo sucio y ganas de morir (Depressed People Have Dirty Sex and Want to Die) (Raya Editorial, 2022) is a diary transformed into a leporello photobook. Using Polaroid photography, drawings and texts, Gabriella N. Báez explores the complex relationship between sex, depression and identity. This diary-book-object brings together the crudeness, chaos and beauty of two years of Zoloft use, non-monogamous relationships, mourning and pleasure.

Gabriella N. Báez (@gabriellanbaez) is a mixed media artist and visual storyteller based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They focus on documenting intimate subjects: their father’s suicide post-Hurricane María, family relations of the queer community, sex work, and the relationship between grief, sexuality, depression and the body. They have been published in National Geographic and TIME, among other publications. Báez is a Magnum Foundation fellow, and their work is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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Esos que saben (Those Who Know) (Raya Editorial, 2022) is the result of a seven-year collaboration between Oscar B. Castillo and Free Convict, a Hip Hop collective born inside the General Penitentiary of Venezuela: a prison ruled by the prisoners. Through photography, documents, interventions and collages, the book chronicles how these young men—living in a system that sees them as a lost cause, with all the odds against them—built their own path for redemption.

Oscar B. Castillo (@eltestigo44) is a documentary photographer and multimedia artist focussing on subjects related to the causes and consequences of political rupture and its impact on civil society. His work emphasizes initiatives for inclusion and community empowerment, while questioning the structures of power, the media industry and the role we can play in a deeper and more effective debate. Castillo’s work has been published in major international publications and has been recognized by several fellowships including The Magnum Foundation.