Mario Ayala has been busy in his home state. Back in summer, the Los Angeles-native, alongside Guadalupe Rosales and Rafa Esparza, created a love letter to lowrider culture up at SFMOMA. While earlier this month, he also presented several new paintings as part of a group show at CONTROL that pays tribute to LA’s rich lineage of airbrushing. <\/p>\n
Running concurrent to the latter, Ayala has unveiled a new solo exhibition that harks to LA’s history of craftsmanship, particularly within the 1950s, as well as offering a reflection on the adverse effects of American capitalism since. Housed at David Kordansky Gallery, Rubber Biscuit<\/em> comprises of a series of new acrylic paintings stretched on a variety of oddly-shaped canvases that are intimately autobiographical, while interrogating the absurdities and questions associated with ritual and design, trade and tradition.<\/p>\n The title of the show refers to the The Chips\u2019 1956 song of the same name that carries a breezy doo wop rhythm. Despite its often nonsensical lyrics, the track alludes to hunger and scarcity \u2014 several motifs that Ayala extrapolates on through his semi-autobiographical artworks on display. Emblematic of past works, Ayala continues his approach to spotlighting overlooked observations \u2014 the back of a car and restrictive parking signs \u2014 such as in Emilia\u2019s Tortas<\/em> (2023) and Road Opene<\/em>r (2023).<\/p>\n