Gabi Magaly, “Yo No Nací Para Aguantar A Nadie,” 2020, archival pigment print, 16.25 x 20.25 inches. Image courtesy the artist.
Yo no nací para aguantar a nadie (I wasn’t born to put up with anyone), emblazoned on a pink floral blanket in florid blue glitter script — also the title of her MFA thesis exhibition at Presa House in 2020 — is something of a mantra for San Antonio-based artist Gabi Magaly. Now on view at East Lubbock Art House in a solo exhibition by the same name, Magaly’s flowery blanket hangs on a clothesline in the front room, greeting viewers with its potent affirmation.
Gabi Magaly, “You are wanted and loved for simply being you,” 2022, archival pigment print, 16.25 x 20.25 inches.
The blanket is part of an ongoing series, represented in a row of photographs in the gallery. In each, a person stands or sits near a blanket or cloth draped from a clothesline, decorated with a phrase that the subject of the photograph wished they had heard growing up. You are wanted and loved simply for being you, reads one. No dejes que otras te digan que tu no eres bonita (Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not beautiful), reads another (both works 2022).
Gabi Magaly, “No dejes que otras te digan que no eres bonita,” 2022, archival pigment print, 16.25 x 20 x 20.5 inches. Image courtesy the artist.
The empowering messaging continues in two amusing sculptural works of oversized food packages, from Magaly’s 2020 thesis work. A four-foot-tall bottle of Fiesta brand spices reads Porfin me siento suficiente como una mujer Mexicana (Finally, I feel enough as a Mexican woman). A mustard-yellow box of “G and M Brand” fideo noodles sits next to it, reading, Mija, no seras mala esposa, si no sabes como cocinar. Porque no es tu responsabilidad de cuidar un viejo huevón (Daughter, you won’t be a bad wife if you don’t know how to cook. Because it’s not your responsibility to take care of a lazy old ass). A stand-in for the artist, the side of the box gives “personality facts” in lieu of “nutritional facts,” including “Amount of fucks given, 0.”
Gabi Magaly, “Mija, No Seras Mala Esposa, Si No Sabes Como Cocinar,” 2020, archival pigment print on foam board, 20 x 26 x 43 inches. Image courtesy the artist.
The sculptures offer a dash of humor in an exhibition of work that disgorges the stew of conservatism and misogyny mixed in the “traditional” machista culture that Magaly grew up with in her Mexican-American household.
This air of resistance, however, is balanced by a touching installation of family photographs on a fifteen-foot-long shelf, held in various small frames — the kinds of quotidian frames found in every grandparent’s house. The photographs display portraits of relatives, from baby pictures to black-and-white portraits of stern-looking ancestors, interspersed with moments of introspection found in everyday rituals, from plaiting hair to mixing masa. Entitled Es Una Cruz Bien Dura A Cargar (It is a very hard cross to carry) (2022), the installation speaks to loss and continuity, both personal and communal.
Gabi Magaly, “Es Una Cruz Bien Dura de Cargar,” 2022, mixed media, 2 x 1 x 15 feet. Image courtesy Danielle East.
East Lubbock Art House, brainchild of artist Danielle Demetria East, has become a fully-fledged, vibrant, and vital community art space in Lubbock, since moving into its home on MLK Boulevard in 2020. Magaly’s tough but tender representations of her community, upbringing, and outlook, presented here, are poignant and effective, with messages that break through generational trauma while conveying the strength of culture.
Gabi Magaly: Yo No Nací Para Aguantar A Nadie is on view at the East Lubbock Art House until December 31, 2022.
