Galerie Revel is thrilled to present Ninfo, Te Quiero, the first solo exhibition in France of Juan Arango Palacios. Born in Colombia and based in Chicago, Palacios’ practice examines the entangled histories of longing, belonging, and diaspora within a pictorial realm that blurs the line between reverie and reality.

"This exhibition embodies the unknown experiences of a queer and immigration journey. These paintings explore the “what if’s” of the multiple possible narratives that my life could have taken. What if I had never left Colombia? What would my identity look like? Who would I be in this realistic yet imaginary timeline? Influenced by my desires and sexuality I paint images of men that live in the alluring landscape that is my surreal Pereira." — Juan Arango Palacios How do we render and make sense of a place that remains elusive and unreachable? If our connection had not been severed, what might our lives look like today? In Ninfo, Te Quiero, Palacios lingers on these questions as he conjures a Colombian imaginary where themes of identity, intimacy, and queerness intertwine. The title, a tender declaration and a nod to the novel Tengo miedo, torero (My Tender Matador) by Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel, articulates the delicately radical reality of queer life in Latin America. In this body of work, which spans both painting and textile weaving, each piece reframes Colombia as a mythic landscape. Honest, whimsical, suspended somewhere between dream, memory, and truth. Within these works lies a sincere and ongoing engagement with Latin American cultural history, queered through Palacios’ diasporic lens. Informed by the visual legacies of artists like Tarsila do Aramal, Débora Arango, Camilo Egas and Saturnino Herrán, his art confronts the weight of tradition, machismo, and conservative societal norms while envisioning an alternative. Through Ninfo, Te Quiero, Palacios turns inward, re-examining his relationship with his homeland and exploring how love, longing, and desire endure amidst complexity and contradiction. In this way, these pieces serve as subtle self-portraits from a hypothetical universe. One to which Palacios reaches out in mourning, curiosity, and love for his country, and in that very act, conjures a new realm that is distinctly his own.