In order to face either one head on, you must stand on a small, uneven platform of homemade adobe bricks. This is a message from the artist: He’s not interested in a seamless viewing experience. It recalls his contribution to the 2017 Whitney Biennial, where he created a room of adobe bricks. Here, a winding path of bricks connects life-size portraits of members of esparza’s largely queer community. The paintings are also on adobe, referencing his Mexican heritage and accentuating his subjects’ brown skin.

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Persons: rafa esparza’s, He’s, JILLIAN STEINHAUER Organizations: Art Basel Miami Beach, Biennial Locations: Los Angeles, New York