Jan 30th 2025

Come visit the Corvus Gallery on the historic campus of the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools. The gallery is located in Gordon Parks Arts Hall and is featuring the work of artist Luis A. Sahagún (b. 1982) in his exhibit In the Gaze of Time: Ritual Portraiture.

A portrait, like a ritual, is never just what it seems. Beneath every face lies a story, buried under layers of time—grief folded into silence, envy masked as pride, wounds stitched beneath a smile. Luis A. Sahagún’s ritual portraiture is about more than capturing features; it is about unearthing the unseen, pulling at the threads of struggle, peeling back the veneer of everyday survival to reveal what lingers underneath. These portraits do not ask what the sitter looks like but rather, what burdens they carry, what shadows still cling to them, and what they are trying to let go of.

Luis A. Sahagún (b. 1982, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) is a material-based artist and practitioner of curanderismo whose work bridges traditional Mexican craft, ancestral healing, and contemporary art. Sahagún’s artistic practice is deeply shaped by his lineage, cultural knowledge, and lived experiences. Through rituals like limpias (spiritual cleansings) and the incorporation of materials imbued with cultural and spiritual meaning, Sahagún bridges personal histories with broader cultural narratives, creating spaces for healing, connection, and transformation.

Sahagún’s In The Gaze of Time: Ritual Portraiture will be on exhibit at the Corvus Gallery, located in Gordon Parks Arts Hall, 5815 S. Kimbark Avenue from January 13 to March 7. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday–Friday.

The public* is invited to a reception with the artist on Thursday, January 30, 4–6 p.m. at the Corvus Gallery
Gordon Parks Arts Hall
5815 S. Kimbark Avenue.

For more information, contact Corvus Gallery Director Gina Alicea, MFA, MEd, galicea@ucls.uchicago.edu.

*Children must be accompanied by an adult guardian or caregiver.

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