“Ahorita!”

For this gallery’s quinceañara, Ever Velasquez has curated an outstanding roster of more than forty women and nonbinary artists for an invigorating group outing that lands in the body. The star of the show is Tanya Aguiñiga’s Border wall ladder, 2023, an affecting, thirty-foot-long print that flanks the full height of the space’s tallest wall and extends along the floor toward the entrance like a ghostly walkway. Made by transferring the rust from a metal ladder found near the border wall in Southern California onto a banner-shaped strip of cotton, the piece alludes to the exponential surge in migrant fatalities due to attempts at scaling it (the barricade was extended skyward by nearly fifteen feet under Trump’s presidency). Next to the work is Verónica Gaona’s glossy-black panel from 2020, made from tinted windshield glass. It sits low on the floor like a headstone and bears a fitting epitaph, which is also the sculpture’s title: “Para aquellos que no regresan en vida, siempre está la muerte” (For Those Who Do Not Return in Life, There Is Always Death).

In the back room is a selection of works that examine the politics surrounding women’s bodies via reproductive rights, pregnancy, and periods. The calming beauty of Jessica Taylor Bellamy’s painting Playa Larga (Coquina Combination Pill Pack), 2023, which overlays the calendar sticker of birth control packaging onto a rendering of a glimmering crimson estuary, provides a nice contrast to the obscene humor of Sophie Stark’s abject Cock Pocket Ever Virgin Combo Pack, 2023, a Hot Pockets–shaped silicone sex toy that’s accompanied by a satirical commercial for it that plays nearby.

Downstairs, the exhibition gathers works from some of the art world’s grand dames—such as Graciela Iturbide and Patssi Valdez—with offerings from an eclectic group of up-and-comers, including Evelyn Quijas Godínez, whose Ahí viene el agua (Here Comes the Rain), 2023, features a pastel-pink window grate framing a softly glowing light box view of the artist’s parents’ hometown in Jalisco, Mexico. Her adornment of the window frame in glittery Dragon Ball Z stickers suggests the perfect impurity of cultural experience and millennial nostalgia. Overall, this intergenerational group of artists addresses and explores identity and social politics via subtle material transformations, wry humor, and everyday materials with a quiet sense of profundity.