This week we welcome ILHAN (he/him, they/them, she/her), a trans non-binary Muslim photographer and multidisciplinary artist specializing in photo manipulation. Ilhan was born in La Plata, Argentina. He has exhibited his work collectively and individually in the Netherlands, the United States, Portugal, Mexico and Argentina.
His artworks have been used as cover art for many book titles such as “Hongos Nupciales” (2020), “Afán de Retina” (2021), and “Demos Rising” (2022). ILHAN made the visual art for the first Festival for Senegalese Migrants’ Rights of La Plata (2020). He was a finalist in the first photography competition of ArtJaén (2023) and was selected in the National Salon of Visual Arts of Tucumán (2021) Pena (2022); Digital media, dimensions variableILHAN won first prize in the National Salon of Visual Arts of Junín (2021). His work was included in The Collection, Vol. 3, by Open Doors NYC, an organization that produces artistic collaborations, programs and campaigns focused on community building, disability justice and gun violence prevention.
ILHAN’s artwork shines a flashlight on gender and ethnic diversity — on all those bodies that have been marked by social stigma. It proposes a reflection and questioning of the status quo, and at the same time suggests another perspective of the world through their own experience as a Muslim, transgender, non-binary person.
The particular use of color is by and large the formal element present in all of their artworks, which reinforces the image in an inescapable way.
