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Sofia Moreno’s Flores Nocturnas (Blooming at Night)
March 28 @ 6:00 pm
Flores Nocturnas (Blooming at Night) Reception
Foster Gallery
This spring the Foster Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will present Flores Nocturnas (Blooming at Night), an exhibition by Mexico City based artist Sofia Moreno. Flores Nocturnas includes drawings, paintings, collages, and mixed media installations that drag and meld Mesoamerican symbolism with queer nightlife artifacts and self-portraiture to envision trans femme legacies centering pleasure, kinship, and futurity.
The exhibition will be on view from March 25-April 17, 2024, with an opening reception from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 28. All gallery events are free and open to the public. This exhibition includes sexual themes and may not be appropriate for minors.
Moreno was born in Coahuila, Mexico and emigrated to the United States in the early 90s. She describes her art as “expressions of the sacred and the profane, sexuality, [and] the body” that reflect her experiences as a brown trans femme migrant. Moreno has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. Flores Nocturnas pictures a trans femme genealogy dating to the precolonial era, challenging the erasure of gender variance from official histories, which positions transgender people as unreal and thus subject to discrimination and violence. An homage to Moreno’s transcestors and trans sisters working the streets, Flores Nocturnas uses a range of aesthetics to depict trans femme pleasure and vivacity in response to and despite ongoing erasure, discrimination, and violence. This lush and sensuous art collection, while haunted by harsh realities that endanger trans femmes, envisions a utopia centering them.
The exhibition and related public programming aim to cultivate awareness and open discussion of transgender histories, experiences, and human rights in the Chippewa Valley. Moreno’s multimedia oeuvre explores how diverse trans femmes navigate their exclusion from and exoticization in dominant cultural spheres, including higher education and fine arts institutions, while prioritizing their personal desires and collective liberation. Bringing this historic exhibition, which includes work spanning two decades, to UW-EC with the support of community partners like the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Center works to redress the historical exclusion and misrepresentation of transgender people in the arts and humanities while building inclusive communities in the Chippewa Valley.
A gallery talk featuring Sofia Moreno and Rae Langes is scheduled for Thursday, April 11, 4-5 p.m. in HFA 101.
Additional support for this exhibition comes from:
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Department of Art and Design, Latin American and Latinx Studies Program, American Indian Studies Program, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Department of Music and Theatre Arts, Sociology Department, History Department, English Department, Office of Sponsored Research and Projects, Intersectional Women’s Center Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Center for Racial and Restorative Justice, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, Multicultural Student Services Office, and The Wisconsin Humanities Council, Eau Queer Film Festival, VMware Foundation Bright Funds, Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Center, Transforming the Valley, s+s project, Museo de Arte Transfemenino, Galería A4
