In an unassuming gallery on East 12th Street, Audrey Rodriguez and Slater Reid Sousley showcased a deeply personal collection of still lifes. Speaking to themes such as magical realism, heritage, memory, and abstraction, the vividly colored paintings not only put the artists’ daily experiences on display but also exhibit their impressive, evolving bodies of work.
South Texas-born Audrey Rodriguez’s newest series, Levitation, incorporates elements of her childhood, Mexican and Honduran heritage, and life in New York. Six works focused on a single color examine her relationship with cultural identity through food.
“Food is something that, for a lot of people, brings them back home,” she says. In addition, each piece features a floating object, imparting an unexpected ethereal quality. “I’ve always been drawn to still lifes and gave myself a somewhat strict framework with a primary color and a pop of another,” she says of the series.
Audrey Rodriguez, “Levitation in Yellow,” 2024, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
In Levitation in Yellow, a De La Rosa marzipan box, an item she happened to have in her studio, influenced the hue. A bottle of Valentina hot sauce, a common topping for mangos among the city’s street vendors, can be seen in the foreground. The floating element, a candle holder with a chain attached, pairs with other glass vessels to fill in the composition and “keep the structure,” she says.
Audrey Rodriguez, “Levitation in Red,” 2024, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
Levitation in Red brings her back to one of her favorite childhood breakfasts, baleada, a Honduran dish of refried beans, cheese, and cream in a flour tortilla. However, it also references a disturbing urban legend. The term “baleada” means “shot woman,” with the beans acting as a metaphor for bullets, cheese as the gunpowder, and tortillas as the cartridge. The elote lollipops, chosen for their red wrapping and as an homage to Rodriguez’s past paintings of eloteros, are laid down “resting as if they had gotten shot,” while a Jarritos fruit punch and a Gansito, a Mexican snack cake, complete the composition.
Audrey Rodriguez, “Neutral Levitation I,” 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14 inches
While sourcing brightly colored items brought a unique challenge, Rodriguez actually found it more difficult to choose those for Levitation in White while also providing depth with a neutral palette. A glass of milk, a saucer, and a floating garlic clove accompany the phrase “No es leche materna,” which translates to “This is not breast milk,” a line from one of her poems. “I like to pull phrases and put them into paintings. This particular phrase is a loose reference to Belgian artist René Magritte’s 1929 painting The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe).
Accompanying her paintings are two sculptures: Lost and El Pulpo. Lost, a miniature New York subway section, features a number of phrases, including “Lost” and “Train of Thought” on each side, “Lost Track…” and “Of Time!!!” at the bottom, and “Time to go to work” and “Time to go home.” The other, El Pulpo, an octopus made of bananas, tells the story of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and its inescapable reach within Central America. “Its tentacles extended into every facet of life,” she says.
Slater Reid Sousley, “Nest of Antlers,” 2024, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 18 inches
When Slater Reid Sousley’s paintings did not arrive on time for the opening, he was forced to pivot, a reminder of the resourcefulness at the heart of his multi-pronged studio practice.
“My family came with me, and we had a couple of bags of paintings we took on the plane,” he says.
His work, encased in handmade frames, features personal items, heirlooms, and objects collected between his studio in Overland Park, Kansas, and his family’s farm in central Missouri. His inspirations follow his interests “wherever those may be,” he says.
“In school, the concept always came first, and that was a block to me,” he adds. His Americana and Camouflage series draw on artifacts and explore family, history, and more.
“The first painting I did with camouflage features a pair of pants as well as my grandmother’s drapes, found when I was digging through boxes in the basement,” he says. The stylistic interpretation of both fabrics drew him in, and he felt they could be painted in tandem.
Works like Vine Tangle juxtapose camouflage with thorny, vine-like structures, evoking tension and resilience. Other paintings featuring found animal skulls and dried branches take him back to long walks around the farm during the pandemic and challenge viewers to explore the interplay of visibility and concealment.
“I love the challenge,” he says of painting. “I paint a series until it feels like I am finished with it, and I’m not sure where I’m going to go next. Usually, series bleed into each other, so you can see traces of previous series.”
Horse Medallions with Corn features corn harvested from the garden and brass horse medallions, an item he saw often growing up. While for Sousley, the medallions embody the spirit of Americana, they originated in Europe, a fact he discovered while diving into their history.
“Roma people used them as protective talismans for horses and their riders,” he says.
Both artists’ works encourage gallery visitors to think beyond the canvas, interpret with their own lenses, and impart a welcomed feel of nostalgia.
Audrey Rodriguez & Slater Reid Sousley was on view at McLennon Pen Co. Gallery through February 1.
