Image: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Huntington will open ‘Laura Aguilar: Day of the Dead’ on Sept. 20, 2026, presenting 21 photographs from the late Los Angeles artist’s lesser-known Día de los Muertos series in its Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. The exhibition, on view through March 1, 2027, is built around the institution’s acquisition of works from the Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016—the largest collection from the series held by a single institution—and includes an ofrenda dedicated to Aguilar.
Aguilar (1959–2018) made the photographs between 1984 and 1992, documenting Día de los Muertos celebrations in Los Angeles homes and at public events. Her subjects include artists, couples, families and friends. During those years, she photographed gatherings organised by the community arts centre Self Help Graphics & Art and participated in the Los Angeles Photography Center’s annual Día de los Muertos event, which included exhibitions by local Chicana/o/x artists.
The presentation includes photographs from the photography centre’s 1989 celebration, depicting figures including Barbara Carrasco, Harry Gamboa Jr. and Ricardo Valverde. Many of the portraits show individuals or groups posed inside a prop coffin Aguilar constructed with a Mexican mural backdrop, in a setup that resembles a photo booth. Linde B. Lehtinen, the Philip D. Nathanson Senior Curator of Photography at The Huntington, has described the images as conveying pride, playfulness and intimacy, while embracing Mexican American culture and reflecting Aguilar’s exploration of family roots and her Chicana lesbian identity.
In ‘At Home with the Nortes’ (1990), artist Armando Norte and Consuelo Flores sit with their sons, Alain and Gian, watching cartoons. All four wear calavera, or skeleton, makeup.
An ofrenda designed by Sybil Venegas and Christopher Velasco, co-trustees of the Laura Aguilar estate, anchors the exhibition. The altar incorporates objects connected to Aguilar’s life and practice, including sand, rocks and branches—materials that refer to land, a recurring subject in her photographs and elements she used while composing nudes in nature. Handmade paper flowers by altaristas Ofelia Esparza and Rosanna Esparza Ahrens surround the altar, while a photograph taken by Henry Gamboa Jr. during his last encounter with Aguilar is placed above it.
The ofrenda also includes Aguilar’s Mamiya 645 film camera and her wrought-iron cross, which signifies her ancestors buried at the San Gabriel Mission. ‘Laura Aguilar: Day of the Dead’ follows ‘Laura Aguilar: Body and Landscape,’ which closed Sept. 7, and is the second instalment in a two-part exhibition series. The Huntington holds more than 100 photographs by Aguilar.
