Kathy Rodriguez
Staple Goods Gallery
1340 St. Roch Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70117
November 9 – December 8, 2013
Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5 p.m.

I am extremely thankful to Robyn Denny and the folks of Staple Goods for allowing me to mount this exhibition in their space!

Artist Statement
Using abstraction, I reference figures or bodies that literally adhere to the surface of the painting or drawing, much like bacteria and viruses invade and adhere to the body and blossom into lesions, or people adhere to one another in sometimes-dangerous ways. The “bodies” in the imagery grow toward and apart from one another, and toward and away from the confines of the picture plane, intended to suggest tension, entrapment, disease, anxiety, and a general leeching. Textures and saturated colors that
might seem playful, but are inherently insidious in this context, build up with form of the paint and graphite. The result is a different tension between the luxury of the oil-painted or graphite-swiped surface, and the discomfort in the imagery.

The combination of abstract language and formal surface will hopefully open the work to a wider audience, broadening the limits of the intimate and private places in which it originates.