University of Illinois at Chicago (MFA), University of Texas at Austin (BA)
Mark Cagaanan Aguhar (May 16, 1987 – March 12, 2012)[1] was an American activist, writer[2][3] and multimedia fine artist known for her multidisciplinary work about gender, beauty and existing as a racial minority, while being body positive and transgender femme-identified. Aguhar was made famous by her Tumblr blog that questioned the mainstream representation of the "glossy glorification of the gay white male body".[4][5][6]
Aguhar maintained an online presence on Tumblr, which hosted both her professional and personal websites. As Tumblr user "calloutqueen," she titled her blog "BLOGGING FOR BROWN GURLS," posting her thoughts about sexuality, sex, dating, gender, and her work.[1][10]
"My work is about visibility. My work is about the fact that I'm a genderqueer person of color fat femme fag feminist and I don't really know what to do with that identity in this world. It's that thing where you grew up learning to hate every aspect of yourself and unlearning all that misery is really hard to do. It's that thing where you kind of regret everything you've ever done because it's so complicit with white hegemony. It's that thing where you realize that your own attempts at passive aggressive manipulation and power don't stand a chance against the structural forms of domination against your body. It's that thing where the only way to cope with the reality of your situation is to pretend it doesn't exist; because flippancy is a privilege you don't own but you're going to pretend you do anyway."
Since 2012, there is a "Mark Aguhar Memorial Grant" available through Chances Dances for queer artists of color.[13]
In 2013, artist Edie Fake had the exhibition titled, "Memory Palaces" in Chicago and paid tribute to five artists and friends that had died, one of which was Mark Aguhar.[14]
In the publication "Proximity: On the Work of Mark Aguhar," (2015), writer Roy Pérez examines Aguhar's drawings, videos, live acts, and writings as performances of closeness, and as critiques of racism, transphobia, and fat phobia. Pérez highlights the complexity of Aguhar's queerness and "not wanting to form attachments within the dominant normative society".[19]
Select exhibitions
2009: No Lone Zone, Creative Research Lab, Austin, Texas[20]
2009: New American Talent, The Twenty-fourth Exhibition,Arthouse at the Jones Center, Contemporary Art for Texas, Austin, Texas
2010: Ideas of Mountains, Creative Research Laboratory, Austin, Texas[21]
