# Fabián Cháirez

Fabián Cháirez (born 13 December 1987, Tuxtla Gutiérrez) is a Mexican plastic artist known for his paintings on sexuality and traditional masculinity, machismo. He is both a painter and sculptor. His work has been exhibit at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Museo de Arte Moderno, and Museu de l’Art Prohibit. He has been based out of Mexico City since 2012.
Multiple paintings of his have caused controversy over their themes of queerness and the subversion of gender roles in contrast to their subjects, notably La Revolución and the works in his 2025 exhibit La venida del Señor.
Cháirez also does drag under the name María Magdalena.

## Life and career

Cháirez was born 13 December 1987 in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. He has described his father as a charro. When he came out to his family, they brought him to church, trying to change his sexuality. He attended the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas from 2007 to 2012, where he earned a degree in Visual Arts.
Cháirez says he became an artist as an escape, a way to embrace who he was and fight back. He points to a near-death experience he had around the age of 20 when him and his partner were attacked with a knife as being important for his career development. The experience caused him to reflect on why and how people can hate others enough to kill them just because of who they are.
Cháirez created the painting used as cover art for Chilean-Mexican musician Mon Laferte's 2023 single "Tenochtitlán".

## La Revolución

Cháirez's 2014 30 by 20 centimetres (11.8 in × 7.9 in) oil painting La Revolución [es] (lit. 'The Revolution') depicts Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata posing pin-up style wearing only a pink sombrero and high heels made of pistols atop an erect horse.
The work's inclusion in a 2019 exhibition titled Emiliano: Zapata después de Zapata (lit. 'Emiliano: Zapata after Zapata') at the Palacio del Bellas Artes caused a national controversy. Its subversion of the traditional macho depictions of Zapata angered some, including the subject's descendants. Zapata’s grandson, Jorge Zapata Gonzalez, threatened to sue both the museum and Cháirez for defamation, claiming the work insinuated Zapata was gay and denigrating him. Cháirez also received death threats for the piece. On 10 December 2019, a group of around 200 protesters gathered at the Palace, blocking its entrance and demanding that the work be removed or burned, some using homophobic slurs. Counterprotesters were also present, and the demonstrations ended in physical confrontations between the two sides. The museum promised to keep the work on display, regardless of any protests. Then president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, addressed the controversy at a press conference, rejecting the violence and calls for the piece to be removed. The legal dispute between Jorge Zapata Gonzalez and the museum was resolved, with the museum agreeing to remove the piece from any promotional materials and place a plaque next to the work expressing the Zapata family's disapproval of its content.
In January 2020, the work was acquired by Spanish businessman and collector Tatxo Benet and put in his Colección de Arte Prohibido (lit. 'Collection of Prohibited Art').
The painting has become a symbol of struggle and pride for some in the Mexican LGBTQ community.

## La venida del Señor

Cháirez's 2025 exhibition La venida del Señor (lit. 'The Coming of the Lord') at the Academy of San Carlos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) was composed of nine large oil paintings created between 2018 and 2023. He stated that the works were produced to make "comparison[s] between religious ecstasy and sexual ecstasy". Most of the paintings involved same-sex pairs fully clothed in traditional catholic religious attire in homoerotic poses.
It faced backlash from some religious groups due to its religious subjects- nuns, priests, angels- and suggestive nature. The Association of Christian Lawyers (AAC) filed a complaint against Cháirez with the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED), alleging his work violated the Mexican Constitution's Article 24 that protects religious freedom. On 14 February 2025, a group of Catholics disapproving of the works organized a sit-in in front of the Academy of San Carlos. Five days later, protesters entered the building and staged a faux-closure of a portion of the exhibit with caution tape and signs.
On 3 March 2025, a federal judge Francisco Javier Rebolledo Peña granted the AAC a temporary suspension order against the exhibit, giving the UNAM 24 hours to enforce it. As a result, the show was suspended. A hearing was also set for 11 March to determine whether to grant a permanent suspension. Cháirez rebuked the suspension as censorship stemming from intolerance and called for protests in support of artistic freedom. He organized a demonstration on the university's campus on 7 March, where he spoke to a crowd of supporters.
On 13 March 2025, Rebolledo Peña rejected the AAC's request to indefinitely suspend the exhibit, and Cháirez announced plans to open his exhibit again, possibly at other venues in México City.

## Works and exhibitions
### Works

| Name | Medium | Date |
| La Revolución | Oil paint | 2014 |
| El sueño | Oil paint | 2013 |
| Del que pica | Oil paint | 2016 |
| La venida del Señor | Oil paint | 2018 |
| Transverberacion | Bronze sculpture | 2021 |

### Solo exhibitions

| Name | Location | Date |
| Lolitos | Galería La Dolorosa | 2010 |
| Corazón de quinceañera | University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas | 2012 |
| Invisible | Galería Hazme el milagrito | 2013 |
| El Jardín de las delicias | Jose Maria Velasco Gallery, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura | 2015 |
| Deliquios masculinos | Secretariat of Culture | 2016 |
| La inocencia de las bestias | Museo Universitario del Chopo | 7-30 June 2024 |
| La venida del Señor | Academy of San Carlos | February-March 2025 |

### Multi-artist exhibitions

| Name | Location | Date | Ref. |
| Imaginaciones radicales | Museo de Arte Moderno | 2023 | |
| Emiliano: Zapata después de Zapata | Palacio de Bellas Artes | 27 November 2019- 16 February 2020 | |