George Febres: Ecuadorian Queer Diasporic Artist Finally Gets Scholarly Attention

The article examines the life and work of George Febres (1943–1996), an Ecuadorian artist who migrated to the United States and developed a hybrid, irreverent body of work blending pop art, neo-surrealism, and queer diaspora experience. Born Jorge Javier Febres-Cordero Icaza in Guayaquil, he moved to Jackson, Mississippi, then New Orleans, where he lived with historian Dr. Jerah Johnson for over 30 years. Febres earned an MFA from Louisiana State University in 1974. He was friends with Robert Indiana, George Dureau, Hazel Guggenheim, and Pedro Friedeberg, and met Andy Warhol. In 1981–1984 he ran his own gallery and curated the exhibition "Visions" at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. His most ambitious curatorial project was "Brother Michael" (1982), featuring 40 works about his relative, the first male Catholic saint of Ecuador, Brother Miguel Febres-Cordero. The exhibition was offered to Ecuador but never accepted. Febres published essays on Goya, George Ohr, and Robert Henri. In 1993 he donated his archive to The Historic New Orleans Collection, which sealed correspondence revealing his homosexuality until recently. He died of AIDS on May 21, 1996, at age 52. His last exhibition was in January 1996 at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. No public collection in Ecuador holds his work, and no major retrospective has been held there. The article argues his omission reflects institutional silencing of queer experiences.