Diana Solís
Diana Solís (she/they) is a Mexican-born photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and educator whose practice encompasses photography, painting, illustration, public murals, and installation. Rooted in Mexican and Chicano culture, memory, and oral and personal histories, her work centers queer identities and narratives while examining place, identity, and belonging. Across media, Solís uses storytelling as a form of cultural preservation and resistance.
As a documentary photographer, Solís has developed a long-term visual archive of LGBTQ+, Latinx, and feminist communities and movements from Chicago to Mexico City. Her work foregrounds intimacy, care, and resilience, creating images that challenge dominant narratives while affirming the lived experiences of historically underrepresented communities. In 2022, selections from this archive, Diana Solís: Intimacies in Resistance, were presented by Ariel Goldberg as part of the lecture and essay Lucid Knowledge: The Currency of the Photographic Image at the Triennial of Photography Hamburg.
Solís’s work has been exhibited at major institutions, including The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum in Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966–2026; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago; and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York in Images on Which to Build, 1970s–1990s (2023). These exhibitions situate her work within broader dialogues around representation, archives, and cultural production. Solís was a 2024 Latinx Artist Fellow, an honor awarded by the U.S. Latinx Art Forum to artists who have made significant contributions to American culture.
Solís’s current photographic work-in-progress expands her focus on kinship and community, exploring evolving definitions of family and resilience through portraiture and collaborative documentary practices. Centered on close friends and extended networks, the project reflects the urgency of documenting lives and relationships shaped by ongoing social and political conditions. Through this work, Solís continues to build an archive that not only documents, but actively contributes to the visibility, dignity, and historical record of the communities she photographs.
As lead artist of Pilsen Latina Legacies, Solís is one of eight artists selected for the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) New Monuments project, a citywide initiative supporting community-generated monuments and public art installations. Reimagining public space through the lens of Latina histories in Chicago’s Pilsen community, the project brings together public art, programming, reflection, and gathering. Together, these projects reflect Solís’s commitment to documenting and honoring the lives, histories, and relationships of the communities she serves while creating spaces for visibility, connection, and collective memory.
Portrait of Diana Solís
Image by Colectivomultipolar
Featured Artworks
Queer Siblings: Tulio, Luisi, and Sarita, 2024
Color photograph
From the series In My House: Kinship and Chosen Family
Mom and Children with Paletas, 2024
Color photograph
From the series In My House: Kinship and Chosen Family, Marquette Park
Mother and Queer Daughter, 2024
Color photograph
From the series In My House: Kinship and Chosen Family
Papucho, 2024
Color photograph
From the series In My House: Kinship and Chosen Family
Selva, Trans Activist and Educator, 2024
Color photograph
From the series In My House: Kinship and Chosen Family
Documenting Our Stories, Catrina y sus Mariachis, 2025
Color Photograph
Honor, Power and Resistance, Intertribal Powwow, Documenting our Stories, 2026
Color Photograph
Alexis and Melissa, Cumbia Sin Fronteras, documenting Queer Lives, 2026
Black and White Digital Image
Diana Solís has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $10,650 raised of $5,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
I am creating a limited-edition artist book that centers on my return to photography and reflects the resilience and complexity of my home community of Pilsen. Through portraits of people and place, this will be an archive of Pilsen’s ever-changing …
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