Nahum B. Zenil was born in 1947.  A Mexican artist, he uses his own person as the principal model in his artwork, which is often compared to that of Frida Kahlo.

He has presented solo shows in important museums and galleries around the world such as the Grey Art Gallery at New York University, The Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and at Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art in New York City.  His work is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

“Zenil opens himself up to the viewer, focusing the spectator’s gaze directly on his body—sometimes clothed but often not. He sets himself up as the object of scrutiny, the receptor of voyeuristic fixation. Yet he also turns the tables on us, gazing back at all who attempt to penetrate his world, challenging and goading, while at the same time inviting us to participate in the personal dramas (or, sometimes, melodramas) that he fashions from his own autobiographical obsessions.

While Zenil’s own body is obviously the focal point of his visual dialogue with the viewer, he treats a wide range of themes in his art. He queries and problematizes issues of nationalism in many drawings and paintings that incorporate the icons of his country, notably the Mexican flag. His definitions of “family” often differ radically from traditional Mexican notions of the immediate or extended family.”

By Edward J. Sullivan