Ayin Es (born ) is a self-taught visual artist, writer, musician (drummer), and

book artist Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

from Los Angeles, California. They have written articles for Coagula Art Journal and the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

. As a musician, they played for 20 years as an R&B drummer touring and recording drums with various artists. They played drums on Rickie Lee Jones' ''

Ghostyhead ''Ghostyhead'' (stylized as ''GHoSTYhead'') is the seventh studio album by the artist Rickie Lee Jones. It was released in 1997 on Warner Bros. Records. Track listing All tracks composed by Rickie Lee Jones; except where indicated #"Little Yel ...

'' album in 1997. Their artists' books are featured in the

J. Paul Getty Trust The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the ...

Research Institute Library in Los Angeles,

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris, and also in prominent university collections such as the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection at

Florida Atlantic University Library The Florida Atlantic University Libraries are a set of libraries in Florida Atlantic University. It comprises a main library on the Boca Raton Campus, the University College Library at the Davie campus, the Broward County Main Library, the FAU ...

, UC Irvine,

Otis College of Art & Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

, and the

UCLA Library The library system of the University of California, Los Angeles, is one of the largest academic research libraries in North America, with a collection of over twelve million books and 100,000 serials. The UCLA Library System is spread over 12 libr ...

Special Collections. Es' mixed media paintings have exhibited at the

Riverside Art Museum Riverside Art Museum is an art museum in the historic Mission Inn District of Riverside, California. The museum is a non-profit organization which focuses on addressing social issues and offers art classes as well as other events in order to in ...

, Torrance Art Museum in Torrance, California, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Es is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship Award, two Durfee Foundation ARC Grants, and was awarded the 2014

Wynn Newhouse Award The Wynn Newhouse Award is an annual prize given to disabled artists in recognition of their artistic merit. History The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, a charitable organization founded by newspaper entrepreneur Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr., inaugur ...

. As a visual artist, Es is known for creating personal narratives. They have used past experience to fuel their subject matter, transforming a broken history into a positive and spiritual resolve. Candid experiences are laid bare and forged directly into their paintings, drawings, soft sculptures, mixed media installations, and handmade books. In 2015, Los Angeles Art Critic Peter Frank wrote: "An autodidact, Es has long embodied

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

interests and

struggles - in painted and drawn and even sculpted and sewn imagery - darkly whimsical forms and figures whose deft fluidity have the eye 'going for a walk with a line' (in the words of Paul Klee, who strongly influenced Es) but aggressively trouble the mind." In 2010, Los Angeles art critic A. Moret wrote: "The viewer activates the past as Es rewrites the story by mending a broken history and constructing a new narrative. ... Es has transformed the past that once plagued

existence into

raison d' être." Es' artwork has been reviewed in ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'', Artillery Magazine, Art LTD, ArtScene Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, Jewish Journal, the Huffington Post, ArtNowLA, and in a 2022 VoyageLA interview. They have been represented by

Shulamit Gallery Shulamit Nazarian is a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles, California. History Shulamit Nazarian began as a roving art platform in 2006 and opened a permanent exhibition space in Venice Beach in 2012. After four years in Venice, the ...

in Venice, California, and George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles and are currently represented by Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. Ayin published their memoir, ''Shrapnel in the San Fernando Valley'' in April 2019 for which they won the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize, and were interviewed in ''

''. In 2021, the artist came out as transqueer/nonbinary and changed their name to Ayin.

References

External links

Es' website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Es, Ayin Living people 1968 births 20th-century American painters 21st-century American writers Non-binary writers Writers from Los Angeles Artists from Los Angeles Musicians from Los Angeles Non-binary musicians Place of birth missing (living people) Artists with disabilities 21st-century American painters American drummers American writers