Jesús Hilario-Reyes

Jesús Hilario-Reyes is an anti-disciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents originally from the Dominican Republic. Their work revolves around various forms of movement - whether liberatory, performative, meteorological or diasporic - and is rooted in a reflection on notions of migration, displacement and transformation. Having traversed several regions of the United States, notably the Midwest, Hilario-Reyes has developed a practice rooted in the shifting realities of exile, where the tensions between presence and absence, visibility and erasure, bodies and ghosts nourish their research.

At the crossroads of sculpture, sound performance, expanded cinema, and site-specific installation, their work questions the place, often denied, of the Black body within systems of representation. Drawing inspiration from queer rave culture and Western carnivals, they mobilize cross-dressing, spectacle, and satire to blur norms of perception and highlight forms of resistance. Hilario-Reyes explores the thresholds between light and darkness, between materiality and abstraction, to imagine spaces of escape, transformation, and belonging.

At the heart of their approach is the concept of Destierro, a Spanish term that evokes the idea of being “torn from the earth.” This notion underpins their exploration of themes of exile, wandering, and shifting identity. Their constantly evolving practice moves from digital work to improvised performance, from metalwork to ephemeral installations, embracing a free and intuitive approach to materials and forms.

As part of their residency, Hilario-Reyes developpes Trap Door. They envision an intervention in Montreal’s queer clubs and rave spaces, installing a “false floor” covered in carbon paper, designed to record the physical imprints left by dancers. This surface, marked by the emotional and ritual charge of the night, will then become a stage or pool for other objects, extending the collective memory of the queer movement into a sculptural installation.

Biography

Currently based between Brooklyn and New Haven, Jesús Hilario-Reyes holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Yale University. They were recently awarded the Drawing a Blank Artist Grant, the Leslie Lohman Museum Fellowship, the Lighthouse Works Fellowship (2022), and a residency at the Bemis Center (2022). Hilario-Reyes has presented their work at several major venues and events, including BOFFO Performance Festival (Fire Island), Frieze (London), e-flux (New York), Gladstone Gallery (New York), The Kitchen (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Black Star Film Festival (Philadelphia), Mana Contemporary (Chicago), Real Art Ways (Hartford), Rudimento (Quito), and Parasol Unit (London).

Recent exhibitions

2025	Sin Fatigue, group exhibition, Salma Serriadine Gallery, New York City, US
2024	A Tumbling Ave Fell Onto Itself, group exhibition, Ingrown Gallery, Chicago, US Assembly Biennial: Horizon Scanning, group exhibition, MOCA Arlington, Arlington, US
2023	Waywardly in Low Tide, solo exhibition, Frieze, 9 Cork St, London, UK There Are No Monuments Here, two-person exhibition, The Union of Contemporary Art, Omaha, US Eramos Semillas / We Were Seeds, group exhibition, Stove Works, Chattanooga, US e-flux: Writing on Raving, group exhibition, Black Rave, e-flux, New York City, US
2022	Dishonest Dancers, solo exhibition, Real Art Ways, Hartford, US CDJS as Instruments: What is an Ocean Between Us?, performance, e-flux, New York City, US #HOWDOIFINDYOU, performance (with Sharmi Basu), The Kitchen, New York City, US Akin to the Hurricane – Iteration 10, performance, Fierce Performance Festival, Birmingham, UK Real Corporeal, group exhibition, Gladstone, Harlem, US Hyper Vigilant, performance, Documenta Fifteen, Kassel, DE Autopoiesis – Recognizing Kin Across Antipodal Topologies, performance, Oyoun, Berlin, DE Drawing a Blank, group exhibition, Parasol Unit, London, UK Akin to the Hurricane – Iteration 07, performance, Rhubarb Performance Festival, Toronto, CA Cinetosis, group exhibition, Rudimento, Quito, EC