Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya

Ex Situ Canis Latrans

August 17, 2021 — September 26, 2021

A solo exhibition by Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya that 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 @we_y_on. This is the artist’s first solo show in Los Angeles.

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.

View the Press Release ︎︎︎

View the narrative “Tlahuelpuchi” written by Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya ︎︎︎

View the narrative “A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren” written by Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya ︎︎︎

Listen to the sound element by Weyón ︎︎︎

Video Documentation

Installation View

Tlahuelpuchi, 2021

Car parts from; Juarez, New Mexico, and the LA highway. Welding rods, Karla’s pants, Allison’s lil t-shirt and nest, lint from Rossen’s house, black and white zip ties, horn tips, dragon skin silicone smeared by Morgan, styrofoam from the many Uber eats orders in Mexico, styrofoam after having seen Huma Bhabha in NYC, styrofoam of someone who bought a new TV, and dropped the packaging on the desert that meets Mount Cristo Rey. Sergios tire, twine, stainless steel zip ties, rabbit pelts, golf balls

Dimensions Variable

A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren”, 2021

Cannibalized goat leg, horn tips, white and black zip ties, two black t-shirts, rabbit pelt, motorcycle part of a man with an inflated ego driving too fast on a sharp turn on Mcnutt Rd. Blue disposable shaving stick, black twine that Gabrielle braided, welding rod, white car part laying next to a palm tree while Karla and I were on route to get boba. That was the day I told her of the white gay from Tiktok that choked on boba and how much I loved the work of Teresa Margolles and Ivana Basic. Pigmented dragon skin silicone, sandrock with motor oil that I found next to a Family Dollar that leads to the border wall and then to Anapra in Juarez Mx. White shell of a boom box the day we went to Jalisco Bar and got so drunk we had to pee in between two cars because we wouldn’t make it home

47” x 25“ x 16”

Vampiritxs (Edition 01), 2021

Horn tips drilled with six holes by Josh, refrigerator parts found on Long Beach Ave. Pigmented silicone, zip ties, straw hat sombreritos from Juarez, Mexico. Welding rod, pelts sewn by; Karla, Maria, Clara, Sergio (maybe), Gabrielle, Allison, and Morgan. Car part found on annoying freeway.

26” l x 12” w x 14” d

Vampiritxs (Edition 02), 2021

27” l x 14” w x 5” d

Vampiritxs (Edition 03), 2021

20” l x 16” w x 4” d

RIP Pocket (Edition 04), 2021

19” l x 15” w x 4” d

Vampiritxs (Edition 05), 2021

13” l x 22” w x 4” d

Vampiritxs (Edition 06), 2021

Golf balls, car parts, horn tips, zip ties, rabbit pelt, black T-shirt, pigmented silicone

21" h x 18" w x 5.5" d

Vampiritxs (Edition 07), 2021

Golf balls, car parts, horn tips, zip ties, rabbit pelt, black T-shirt, pigmented silicone

21" h x 18" w x 5.5" d

Photo Credit: Joshua Schaedel

Select Press

Artnet︎︎︎

Hyperallergic︎︎︎

Art Papers︎︎︎

AQNB︎︎︎

Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA)︎︎︎

Special Project

𝙻𝚒𝚕 𝙴𝚡 𝚂𝚒𝚝𝚞

— a special collection curated by Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya featuring handmade goods for the home, garments, accessories & more by:

Carlos Avila, Joshua Castillo, Karla Ekatherine, Sergi, Maria Maea, Xavier McFarlin

Shop Now on Cafe Murmurs︎︎︎