Zolla/Lieberman Gallery is pleased to present El Jardin, a body of large scale paintings that emerge from the intimate pen and ink drawings first shown in Aguirre's recent exhibition El calor de las hojas. While the earlier drawings functioned as a space of reflection and discovery, the paintings extend those narratives into physical form, transforming quiet observation into architectural scale. Through layered paint and sculpted surfaces, Aguirre renders doors, walls, trees, and streets as sites marked by memory and absence.

The works confront the ongoing realities of violence affecting Chicago's inner city communities, drawing from what the artist has seen, witnessed, and carried from youth into adulthood. Figures often recede, leaving deserted rooms, empty streets, and fragile traces of human presence that hold grief and remembrance. In this way, the garden becomes both memorial and offering, honoring lives lost while insisting that they are not forgotten. 

Image: Herman Aguirre, ¡Ni uno mas!, 2023, Oil and oil/acrylic skins on panel, 63" x 98" x 4.5"