The lives of many of Mexican heritage are punctuated by performances; an ensemble of mariachi musicians celebrates a birth, performs for a first communion, plays for the crowds gathered at weddings and birthdays, and is hired for the commemorative rites of the funeral. Their tune is a traditional genre of music dating back hundreds of years to the rural communities of western Mexico, now as proud and bold of a sound as the musicians that troupe from location to location to perform for their listeners. As boisterous as their ballads are the performers’ outfits: their tightly-fitting ornamented pants, short jackets, embroidered belts, boots, wide bow ties, and sombreros. Their attire, known as the charro suit, has become a universally recognized symbol of national pride and Mexican identity. Mariachi, Erick Medel’s debut solo exhibition with Rusha & Co., celebrates these performers, featuring them centerstage in his works. The musicians, armed with their violins, guitarrónes, trumpets, and guitars, appear ready for battle. Or, as in the case of Mariachi on 1st St. (2022), might be marching home. Their uniforms are akin to armor, shining and courageous, equally as important as the men donning the charros. It is no coincidence that their getups can be traced back to the liberators of the Mexican Revolution. Some of the men, as in Violin (2023) or En La Noche (At Night) (2022) perform their solos in solitude, breaking away from their ensemble for their moment to shine. Other scenes, as in Showtime (2022), Pa La Foto (For a Picture) (2023), or the largest piece in the exhibition, Listos! (2023), feature the band as a body. Medel’s depictions of his heroes emphasize his chosen protagonists as a type of celebrity, iconic figures deserving of recognition and angling for glory. Continuing his practice of documenting everyday life for Medel, his family, and the community of Mexican-Americans in which he associates, his new exhibition draws sole inspiration from these itinerant entertainers. Equal parts documentarian and synthesizer, Medel strings the lived experiences of his community into stitched scenes of vibrant color, tactile textures, and labored surfaces. His textiles are grounded in observing the world around him, imbued with a sense of the photographic. Born in the city of Puebla, Mexico, Medel now lives and works in Boyle Heights, just blocks from the famed Mariachi Plaza de Los Ángeles. Situated at the intersection of 1st Street and Boyle Avenue, Mariachi Plaza has, for nearly a century, been a gathering place for the musicians who stand ready to be hired to play in restaurants, at private parties, or for community events. Like Medel, these musicians are ambassadors of their culture, preserving and passing on to the coming generations the intangible heritage and traditions of the Mexican people. Medel’s practice is a continuation and preservation of his family’s creative practices – his mother’s practice knitting, and his father’s woodworking. It was on his mother’s sewing machine where Medel’s embroidered works were first drafted. Vacillating in form between sculpture, painting, and craft, Medel’s process of creating his denim canvases is laborious and painstakingly detailed, serving as a reminder of the immigrant labor which underpins life in increasingly globalized metropolises. His works on canvases are embroidered with shining and colorful threads, with each stitch harkening towards the flamboyant outfits of the mariachi ensembles. A charro suit with custom embroidery by legendary Boyle Heights supplier for the mariachis, La Casa Del Mariachi, hangs amongst the works on the walls of the gallery, functioning sculpturally and acting as a stand-in for the Medel’s own presence within the exhibition. In his studio, Medel’s industrial sewing machine exudes its own rhythm, with his hands guiding his denim canvases back and forth as the machine perforates and threads the images. He becomes a musician in his own right, orchestrating his images in tempo, with each line of string paralleling musical notation on the canvas. Medel’s approach is intuitive and—like a sort of improvisational instrumentation—spontaneous, with each mark made distinctly and each colorful thread chosen from an assortment of spools. The scenes of everyday life portrayed by Medel are as much in reference to the lineages of genre paintings by Dutch Masters, the French realist paintings of Gustave Courbet, or the 17th century works of Diego Velázquez as they are in reference to the Chicano muralists like Chaz Bojórquez or Carlos Almaraz who have transformed the scenery of East Los Angeles on the walls of buildings throughout the neighborhood. Medel’s practice highlights these less-recognized forms of fine art, glorifying his roots through his subject matter and his choice of medium. Erick Medel was born in Puebla, Mexico in 1992. He holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Recent exhibitions include Strings of Desire at Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles (2023); Dirty Realism: Otra noche en L.A. at Veta Galeria, Madrid (2023); With Us at Ojiri Projects, London (2022, solo); Unseen Threads at Martha’s, Austin (2022); Apple in the Dark at Harkawik, New York (2022); a solo presentation at Zona Maco in Mexico City with Rusha and Co. (2021); Hustling De Sol A Sol at Martha’s, Austin (2021, solo); The Human Scale at Rochester Art Center (2021); Breakfast in America at Rusha & Co. (2021); Still Here at Martha’s, Austin (2020); and Everyday, Everyday, Everyday, Everyday Freedoms, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore (2019). Erick Medel Warming Up in the Plaza, 2022 polyester thread on denim 53 x 44½ x 1¼ in. 134.62 x 113.03 x 3.17 cm. _____ Caroline Wong's debut solo exhibition in the United States, A Many-Splendoured Thing, proudly presented by Rusha & Co. in collaboration with Sabrina Andres, reflects an artistic practice primarily nostalgic and sentimental. The bonds of friendship and the culinary delights portrayed in Wong’s works synthesize eastern and western influences to challenge the conformity of Asian female representation, providing an intimate and nuanced perspective on the webs of cross-cultural relationships amongst women and across the dining table. A Many-Splendoured Thing borrows its title from a historical romance novel of the same name by Chinese-Belgian writer Han Suyin. In the strongly autobiographical book, Suyin addresses feelings of alienation, longing, and belonging through the portrayal of two characters who find love in colonial Hong Kong in the 1950’s. As Wong’s works are heavily influenced by both her Malaysian-Chinese origins and her upbringing in London, she finds familiarity with many of Han's questions around identity and the complexities of living within and between cultural circumstances. When Caroline Wong was living in China from 2011 to 2015, she made friends with a group of women, all of Asian descent, who shared an infatuation for food. While they explored the city in the search for new and familiar flavors, Wong and her companions grew close and bonded over their experiences as contemporary Asian women in an increasingly globalized society, with one side wanting to reconnect with their Asian heritage and the other interested in life outside of China. Wong’s experiences with her friends became a growing source of inspiration for her works on canvas and paper. Adding to her ongoing series Cats and Girls, Hungry Women, and Banquets – all of which unsettle concepts and depictions of femininity that have historically favored decorum and decency – Wong continues to centralize a messy, sensual, and unhinged female experience. She evokes carnivalesque traditions to depict celebration, excess, and the collapse of societal mores. Through food, drink, and companionship, Wong's figures find temporary respite from "life's harshness." Caroline Wong’s approach to image-making is reflected in her many references: portraits of hungry peasants by Annibale Carracci and Frans Hals; Song and Tang Dynasty depictions of literary gatherings; ancient post-banquet scenes of 'unswept floor' mosaics; Chinese scroll paintings of palace ladies at leisure and the broader genre of meirenhua ('images of beautiful women'); ukiyo-e and the sensuous, heady delights of everyday life captured in saturated color and pattern; as well as the saccharine portrayals of feminine frivolity in British nineteenth-century "gossip paintings''. Like Wong and her female companions, the artworks are a blend of Eastern and Western cultural influences, bound together eternally. A Many-Splendoured Thing brings together a selection of four new paintings (Banquets), three large scroll drawings (Cats and Girls), and three small drawings on board (Hungry Women). Her works on canvas, Pizza, Crisps, Noodles, and A Many-Splendoured Thing render her female characters (all stand-ins for her Chinese friends replicating the closeness amongst these diverse women) eating lustfully at a dining table in a seemingly private setting. Here they express an untamed pleasure, free from judgment and all social constraints. Wong's primary interest lies in capturing women when they are their most authentic selves, and presenting a critical subversion of misogynistic observations and biases throughout art history. One such example is Degas' renowned pastel drawings that study women like a voyeur through a keyhole, capturing them in their "animal states", a temper that would have been described by Degas as repulsive. In daring contrast, Wong's images value the aesthetic and sensual over the rational and intellectual, nature and chaos over control and order, sentimentality over aggression, and decorative excess over purist simplicity. She favors all that has historically been labeled and dismissed as feminine. The many feasting-related activities of Wong’s scroll drawings, Tea Party, Japanese Breakfast, and Picnic, express a sense of unity and sisterhood. Eating and sharing become both liberating and healing. The cats depicted as complimentary characters in the pieces (a recurrent motif in Wong's practice) symbolize a feline playfulness that dissolves subliminal limitations and reflects a liberated self. The artist further investigates the link between consumption and creation by seeing her materials as nourishment. She uses colors, textures, and materials to convey the visual, physical, and sensory delights of eating. Wong has spent months layering paints, pigments, and pastels, inspired by Bonnard's way of recovering the "savor of things". The resulting pictures are to be taken in slowly and appreciatively, with its surprises appearing one by one in the viewer's vision. Her expressive mark-making is evocative rather than explicative, driven by a hedonistic pursuit in which visual perception and memory intertwine. The finished pieces represent a flaming gulf of passion and delight, with a glittering color saturation that reflects such decadence while also evoking the vibrancy of Southeast Asia, a jubilant push-back against convention that celebrates beauty in excess. Caroline Wong, born 1986, lives and works in London. Wong graduated with an MA in Fine Art from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2021. She also obtained a Diploma in Contemporary Portraiture from The Art Academy in 2018. Selected solo exhibitions include A Many-Splendoured Thing, Rusha & Co., Los Angeles (2023); Artificial Paradises, Soho Revue, London (2022); and Cats and Girls, Soy Capitán, Berlin (2022). Selected group exhibitions include You were Bigger than the Sky, You Were More than Just a Short Time, Gallery Belenius, Stockholm (2023); Fetish, MAMA, London (2023); Angels with Dirty Faces, Ojiri Gallery, London (2022); Go Figure!, Daniel Raphael Gallery, London (2022); Eat Drink Man Woman, 180 Strand, London (2022); Lotus-Eaters, Indigo+Madder, London (2022); Friends and Family, Pi Artworks, London (2022); The Dinner Table, San Mei Gallery, London (2021); ING Discerning Eye, The Mall Galleries, London (2021); MA Show, City and Guilds of London Art School, London (2021); Drawn Out, Drawing Room, London (2021); and Drawing Biennial 2021, Drawing Room, London (2021). Awards include the Drawing Room Biennial Bursary Award (2021), The Society of Women Artists Derwent Art Prize (2018), and the Liberty Specialty Markets Art Prize (2018).