Join us Friday 8/27 at 6PM for an Artist Talk of EX SITU CANIS LATRANS with RUBEN ULISES RODRIGUEZ MONTOYA Q & A with the artist to follow. Complimentary herbal tonics available while supplies last. ***Out of respect for the artist, filming is not allowed. Masks are required, even for the fully vaccinated.*** ------------------ It’s our pleasure to share that we will be fully reopening on August 15th with: EX SITU CANIS LATRANS A SOLO EXHIBITION BY RUBEN ULISES RODRIGUEZ MONTOYA Join us for the opening reception Sunday, August 15th from 12 to 6 PM Opening hours for the gallery, cafe & shop begin Tuesday, August 17th. Regular hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 11-6 PM. 1411 Newton St. Los Angeles No appointment necessary. Masks required even if fully vaccinated. Ex Situ Canis Latrans engages becomed and un-becoming bodies in various states of abject queer fecundity. The exhibition is a site-specific large-scale installation that includes a sound element by Weyón. This is the Rodriguez Montoya's first solo show in Los Angeles. “Ex-Situ,” references a method of conservation where endangered and threatened species are removed from their natural habitat to a new location. “Canis Latrans” is the latin term for coyote. Coyote stems from the nahuatl word Coyotl. Coyotes are highly adaptable animals that live both in North and South America. The Coyote is an animal that is simultaneously revered, misunderstood, and hunted down by ranchers to reduce predation to livestock. Although futile this act is rooted in cultural traditions and attitudes towards the Coyote— a prime example of the fractured way we live with the environment. Coyote is also a term used to describe a person that guides and helps migrants cross the Southern border from Mexico to the US. At times, families in the US collectively gather funds to bring their loved ones over: a kind of coyoteando, or becoming Coyote to aid in the journey North. Our homes, our vehicles, our bodies become Coyote dens — places that protect and transport loved ones until they reach their final destination. Born 1989 in Parral, MX, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya's lil monsters are a fantastic becoming that center around anthologies and social issues concerning border culture, abjection, and mestizaje. Aided by magical realism, nahualismo, Sci-Fi, and the labor of his family, his work hybridizes and creates parallels between land, the human, and the animal as a way to investigate the process in which violence eradicates, erases, and erodes communities of color.