A Good Gamble
To appreciate the witty, eclectic Full Deck: La Loteria, the group show at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery, it helps to have an understanding of the bingolike game for which the exhibit is named and the process by which the show was arranged.
The original Italian lotería immigrated to Mexico from Spain in 1769. The game uses 54 cards, which depict, among other images, roosters, devils, mermaids and death. A caller picks out cards, and players try to match them from their hands.
In creating the exhibit, the gallery allowed some of the 107 local, national and international artists to pick a card on which to base their work. Others were randomly assigned a card. The gallery supplied 8-inch-by-10-inch canvases so that the show would have a uniform, playing-cardlike appearance, though not every artist used them.
In fact, the artists’ interpretations and media vary wildly. The result is a constant rotation of images, like TV channels switched with a remote control.
Full Deck fills the walls in the small gallery’s West Room. At first glance, all of the cards are appealing. Perhaps subconsciously seeking something cool to view on a hot afternoon, we were drawn to local artist Mary Kay McGinty’s acrylic “Tarjeta #65 — La Paleta.” The bright pinks and reds convey the jovial mood of the subject: a life-sized ice-cream bar, slightly melted around its rounded edges. Lime wedges and strawberries float in the background like delicious, juicy planets. The title runs along the bottom edge in cursive lettering and rounded, flashing lights. It’s a sumptuous work.
McGinty chose her card because she planned to do “something bright and colorful and candy-coated,” she tells the Pitch. “I picked what inspired me, something I could have a lot of fun with.” Obviously she did.
After McGinty cooled us off, the image of President Bush on the opposite wall got our blood boiling. And made us laugh. Susan Dodd’s political and amusing mixed-media piece “Tarjeta #47 — La Corona” depicts the president wearing a crown of cut mirrors and the facial expression of a constipated monkey. His normal-sized head rests atop a diapered baby’s body. The rest of the canvas is covered with subtle visual jokes, such as a row of Corona beer bottle caps, slightly bent, running along the bottom of the frame — eight of them, one for each year of Bush’s term. Further study reveals that Baby Bush sits on a globe; tiny joker and king playing cards are visible in the background along with the word PETROLEUM.
Looking for someone who deviated from the traditional uses of the canvas, we spotted Israel Garcia’s “Tarjeta #12 — El Valiente.” The canvas here is used as a large playing card that turns, controlled by the viewer’s twisting of a plastic X. Illustrations of Jorge Negrete, the 1940s Mexican movie star, fill the front side of the card. The handsome, mustachioed actor is in many moody poses: singing, carousing with friends, staring moodily at the camera with a burning cigarette dangling from his lips. Viewers are encouraged to write down their ideas of what makes a hero. Paper and a Sharpie wait nearby. The sheets of paper ask, “What is it to be brave?” One gallery attendee answered excitedly, “To be your own hero!” Garcia’s interactive entry is interesting and thoughtful.
A number of other contributions are equally engaging: Christine Clay’s organic take on tamales, Adolfo Martinez’s hilarious “Tarjeta #58 — Los Mariachis,” and artist Gear’s interpretation of a jester.
It’s safe to gamble on this artistic lottery.
