Isaiah Vazquez, “Mexican Fiesta (c. 2006)”
Isaiah Vazquez’s exhibition, “$10 Halves,” in the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Underground Gallery, investigates how we hold onto the past, our work on its upkeep and the meaningful ways it shapes us.
Vazquez, a Kansas City Art Institute graduating student with a BFA in Painting, presents his first solo exhibition as a collection of drawings enlisted as memory vessels which preserve the enchanting textures of familial narrative and the resilience of memory. The idea of memory maintenance, not as a meaningless task but as a continuous and meticulous endeavor, is at the heart of this exhibition.
Vazquez expresses this in his distinctive practice. Coatings of tracing paper, joint compound, and spray paint are used to assemble his pieces, which are then embellished with pencil, charcoal and watercolors. Layer by layer, these materials become analogies for creating memories. As viewers, we are encouraged to pay close attention and take part in this act of remembering.
“$10 Halves” relies on the gallery’s long, narrow layout, which includes a small cove concealed behind the steps and ends with Vazquez’s graffiti at the far end. This creative inscription serves as a reminder that memory is continually being rewritten while infusing the area with new life. Within this setting, Vazquez’s work draws deeply from sacred family rituals, such as the intimate act of cutting hair, depicted by a split-screen projection in the small cove. Here, the viewers are asked to consider what is gained and lost in remembering.
The “Memory Series,” a set of portraits of family members rendered on tracing paper and spray paint, further explores these themes. Vazquez experiments with joint compound, allowing the materials to take on their own life. He adds small, meticulous details, sometimes burning the wood frames and creating star-like patterns requiring close and careful observation. Each portrait is a fragment, a piece of a larger narrative, mirroring memory itself.
The centerpiece, “Mexican Fiestas,” embodies this fragmentation. Joint compound, charcoal and nostalgia convene in colorful figures that celebrate heritage rooted somewhere in the Midwest. Vazquez allows the materials to break apart. As he adds watercolor, he reflects on our active role in shaping our memories and imbuing them with meaning, “it brings some color into it again, like another way to sort of give the memory some tangibility and … strength.”
The pieces are odes to those who came before. The “$10 Halves” title offers a moving entry point, referring to stacks of half-dollar coins saved by Vazquez’s late grandmother, which she envisioned to be used for her grandchildren. This quiet act of imagining a future demonstrates intergenerational love and the enduring power of family, from which Vazquez draws inspiration.
His works “capture and seal” moments in time. As Vazquez reflects, “(our desires and relationships) degrade and change over time… You can add to it, but you can also take away.” In between this possibility of growth, the task of care and the inevitability of erosion lie the soul of Isaiah Vazquez’s “$10 Halves.”
Isaiah Vazquez’s “$10 Halves continues at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Underground Gallery, 2012 Baltimore Ave. through May 30. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. For more information, 816.474.1919 or www.leedy-voulkos.com.
