Often masking our inner selves through the distraction of our exterior representation, how the world views us is filtered through our choices of sartorial distinction. Clothing is the message to constitute a self that consistently shifts to meet the needs. The artists in New Clothes look to materials and processes that are suggestive not only of corporeal forms, but figures linked to a history, place, and time. The materials in question go beyond their tactility; they are used as proxies, a means to approximate, if not adopt, identities. Evidence of a substitution initiated by the artists in New Clothes may infer the vestiges of displacements where one body is replaced for another. Tanya Aguiñiga’s anthropomorphic sculptures, mimicking a fleshy appearance, mark the gallery with quiet tension as they hang from loose cradles woven by the artist. Paying tribute to dignified voices through the use of plant culture and found materials, the work of Maria Maea draws upon multifaceted histories as sites of collective labor. Erstwhile, Marco Rios adopts personas and humor as a means to destabilize, or make sense of, the artist as catalyst. Displaying various methods of production, New Clothes needles the concern, for better or worse, that perhaps the body may not be enough.

Tanya Aguiñiga is an artist, designer, and craftsperson who frequently collaborates with other artists, activists, and members of the community to touch upon questions of the nature of national identities. She has participated in several exhibitions including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles amongst many others. She has been the recipient of a Creative Capital Grant; is a United States Artists Target Fellow; and awardee of an Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities.

Maria Maea is a multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects with sculpture, craft, performance, and installation. Her work mines the connection tissues of disparate communities, both present and past. Her work has been exhibited most recently in the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, Murmurs Gallery, Los Angeles, and has been featured most recently in the Los Angeles Times.

Marco Rios works in sculpture, video, photography and performative practices. His work is enriched through the lens of surreality, personal catharsis, and pop culture. Previous exhibitions included Phantom Sightings, LACMA; This is Killing Me, MASS MOCA; Despair Beyond Despair, LAXART, amongst many others. He has been the recipient of Art Matters Grant; an ARC Grant from the Durfee Foundation; and in 2007 a recipient of the California Community Foundation Fellowship.

Exhibition Dates:

March 23, 2023 - May 2, 2023

Opening Reception:

March 23, 2023
4pm - 7pm