Farley Aguilar, The Huddle, 2011. Ink on Mylar, 14 1/2" x 15". Museum purchase.

Born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, Florida, Farley Aguilar is a self-taught painter widely recognized among Florida's young contemporary artists. His work mingles psychology, emotion, color, and narrative into dark and sometimes macabre scenes composed as a search for truth in human behavior and society.  The Huddle is from his "Dogville" series, loosely based on Lars Von Trier's film of the same name. Working from source photographs of parades, rituals, and ceremonies, the series is an exploration of the social facades of communities and the habitual modes of human behavior within them. The Huddle depicts a group of people gathered around a fire. Farley's fluid ink composition blurs the distinctions between individuals, making it difficult to distinguish where one person ends and the mob begins. Their mask-like faces, appearing almost ghoulish in character, are not meant to obscure their identities but rather to reveal the true human emotions and desires beneath our social performances. Aguilar lives and works in Miami