Christina is a Coward

June 30 – August 15, 2016

Hello Studio at the Blue Star Arts Complex, San Antonio, TX

When I first met Solis, she was working in an alternative figurative style reminiscent of the 1960s Chicago artist collective, The Hairy Who. Her early works also exuberated a baroque discord similar to the aesthetic of the cartoon Superjail!. Solis is a skilled draftsman, yet her emphasis was on rendering the figure in an agitated state with an androgynous disposition, rather than depicting acute anatomy. Finding her style akin to the naiveté and rejection of the traditional canon present in outsider art, I was immediately drawn to her work for its aggressively gender-bending approach and the sensibility in her compositions.

During her academic studies, Solis focused on collage, assemblage, and performance. Now, a recent graduate of art school, her conceptual practice has deeply evolved. In the exhibition Christina is a Coward, Solis maintains some elements from her earlier artistic practice; but she has largely departed from the confines of two dimensions. For example, in We Are Just Peachy, Thanks, polyfilled and fabric sculptures expand on a Jim Nutt figurative expression and demonstrate Solis’ new voice.

“Christina is a Coward was born out of the misfortune of failed relationships. Superficial high school tropes are a major theme explored in this exhibition, as such mechanisms are used to analyze truths as well as façades within social anxieties and unsuccessful human connections.

–Megan Solis