Jester Bulnes (b. 2002) is a Mexican and Salvadoran photographer and interdisciplinary artist who works in photography, painting, ceramics, video, and performance. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, they are currently in their senior year at the University of California, Los Angeles where they are working towards completing a BA in Fine Art with a minor in Chicano/a/x Studies.
Bulnes’ work is rooted in duality, parallels, and the in-between as a framework for engaging with concrete, clay, and raw canvas as a way to challenge preconceived notions of identity and expand the possibilities to see thing beyond a western-colonial binary. Often feeling in the world “ni aqui ni alla,” (neither here nor there) their works becomes a physical manifestation for Bulnes to embody a multitude of identities. They choose specifically to document and highlight the lives of queer brown bodies through stylized outfits often paying homage to traditional Latino culture and performative gestures creating what becomes known as self portraits through the use of others by means of photography and moving image. Their obsession with tagging as disruption, time, building a personal archive, and the body furthers their departure in dismantling hegemonic structures and the questioning of hierarchies.
Bulnes has exhibited at the New Wight Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and Room 3557 (Los Angeles, CA).
