VIDEO: Ana Segovia-Queering the Cowboy

“I think that people make art because they want to see something that’s not there yet.” Met Mexican painter Ana Segovia in his studio in Mexico City for a conversation on his love of painting and how he uses the medium to question entrenched ideas of masculinity and identity. Read less …

Ana Segovia, who comes from a family of filmmakers, initially wanted to become a filmmaker. However, at a formative moment, a teacher encouraged him to turn his elaborate storyboards into paintings: “Once I got into oil painting, everything changed for me. It was like, this is it. This is all I wanna do… Just feeling your body in connection to what is going on there is addictive.”

Much of his work draws on the imagery of Mexico’s “Golden Age” films, where the figure of el charro, the Mexican cowboy, embodied a rigid, nationalistic masculinity. “El Charro is the ultimate macho. He represents everything that’s like new and old world, he represents hierarchy,” Ana Segovia explains. “By painting the film still, I transform it… It sort of weirdly queers the image because I end up using these very colorful, strident palettes. It throws that masculinity into crisis.”

For Ana Segovia color becomes a tool of disruption and play. “I grabbed cadmium red and painted the entire cowboy chaps red. And something shifted. The cowboy chaps became go-go boots… It supercharged it, and I feel like it is the most erotic I have gotten without the necessity of showing eroticism.” For Ana Segovia, this approach is not about providing answers but letting contradictions remain visible: “I don’t feel like I can fix masculinity, but I can point to say I find this incredibly sexy and problematic.”

Reflecting on painting itself, Ana Segovia emphasizes its tension and unpredictability: “If there is no tension in the painting”.

Ana Segovia (b. 1991, Mexico City) is a Mexican painter whose work explores gender, identity, and national archetypes, often queering traditional representations of masculinity. He has exhibited widely, including at Museo Tamayo (Mexico City), Museum of Contemporary Art (Denver), and at the 2024 Venice Biennale Arte. His works are in the collection of numerous institutions, including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark). Ana Segovia lives and works in Mexico City.

 

Ana Segovia was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in his studio in Mexico City in June 2025.Editor and producer: Nanna Rebekka, Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan, © Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2025, Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond and Ny Carlsbergfondet