In a new exhibition at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, “Spiritual Manifestations in the Feminine,” Mexico-based artist Isis Rodriguez invites viewers to see the shame, struggle and power of women’s bodies.
Most of Rodriguez’s paintings feature Zapatista-masked women in lingerie; both the mask and lingerie are a way of protesting the shame imposed on women’s bodies, the artist said.
“Women are gatekeepers of sexuality, gatekeepers of beauty, and we’re always being judged,” Rodriguez said, looking at her pieces on the wall, her voice echoing in the gallery soon to be filled with viewers.
Part of the 37th annual “Solo Mujeres,” the exhibit opens today, the first day of Women’s History Month, at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts at 2868 Mission St. It features 10 years worth of Rodriguez’s work, shown for the first time in San Francisco, as well as works from seven emerging female artists across the Bay Area.
“I’m hoping that this show will elevate Isis’ work, and take her to a major museum — and that emerging artists also have more doors open to them after this,” said Martina Ayala, executive director at the Mission Cultural Center.
“Bringing the two [generations] together in the same space is really important,” Ayala added. “That’s how we share, and that’s how we learn, and that’s how we grow.”
Born in Los Angeles, Rodriguez went to the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1990s and lived in the Mission until 2007. In her 20s, San Francisco was “a perfect place” for her to “develop and be exposed” to all kinds of art and movements.
“The ground zero for activism,” Rodriguez called it, recounting the grunge music and underground comics that surrounded her.
As she matured, she began traveling back and forth to Mexico, provoked to make new art. In 2016, she sold her house in the Excelsior and moved to Guanajuato, Mexico.
Wandering around the main gallery at the Mission Cultural Center, where Rodriguez’s works are displayed, there’s no shortage of symbols of spirituality and sexuality: A white horse that resembles a woman’s body with a “beautiful, reserved and calm” sexuality; pomegranates that symbolize abundance and fertility; and Xoloitzcuintle, the hairless Mexican dog that helps the dead find their way to the afterlife.
Rodriguez has grappled with shame throughout her own life. As a little girl, raised Catholic in Kansas, she remembered feeling tortured reading the story of Adam and Eve. A classmate of hers was barred from attending high school after getting pregnant.
“I was afraid that somebody might judge me for wearing a certain type of clothing, or wearing my hair a certain way, or not covering my head or body enough,” she said. “It’s almost like you have a dark cloud that continues to follow you from the time you were a child all the way to your adulthood.”
That journey lies in plain sight in her pieces. She focused on the forces that helped her overcome shame: Courage, unconditional love and the desire to seek, just to name a few — all through depictions of masked women, holding a sword, a calla lily or a pair of binoculars.
Today, in her San Miguel de Allende studio, she rummages through stacks of her old sketches and brings out ideas she wants to work on. She is her own model, and poses in front of her camera. She makes composites in Photoshop that have more than 100 layers, and crashes her computer all the time.
Each of Rodriguez’s art pieces, to her, is “a sticky-note on the fridge” that reminds her of the life she wants to live — free of shame.
“I don’t want to have any fear anymore. I don’t care what people think about me anymore,” she said. “I’m kind of giving myself an empowerment propaganda in my head.”
The exhibit is on view at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts from March 1 to March 24. The opening reception starts at 6 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased here. All art pieces are for sale.
Isis Rodriguez is an amazing, “next level” artist. She has much to teach us!
Latino Comics Expo Salutes you!
-Ricardo Padilla