Studio Visit: Wendy Cabrera Rubio

The work of Wendy Cabrera Rubio (Mexico City, 1993) is hard to categorize. Her multidisciplinary practice does not respond to specific artistic techniques, norms or tendencies, but it is defined by her deep research about the cultural and ideological potentials of images and objects. Visiting her studio in her home town was an opportunity to get to know closer not only her understanding about working with art, but also the multiple imaginaries than surround her and that has defined her way to see and to shape another visual and material world.

Although Wendy’s work doesn’t fit in a specific art category, her pieces are easy recognizable because of her humorous but also intense point of view about the visual “reality”. Whether through art history or cartoons, Wendy is constantly exploring how all the images has built our ways of seeing to the point of being a key part of the historical narratives which with we have gave sense to our ideologies. In some sense, is almost as she is wondering: what do images want?

Some of the references Wendy takes as the basis of her work trespass the boundaries of popular dichotomies such high and low culture, image and object and narrative and action. This way, in her studio but also in her exhibitions—or even in her IG account—you can see both the image of one of the most important works by Miguel Covarrubias or a meme with Tweety and a sweet phrase.

When talking about mass, pop or high culture, Wendy knows image production and distribution is an obliged issue to explore. We are very used to hear about the technical reproduction of images (thanks Benjamin! Or maybe Google), but those processes are for the interest of Wendy regarding the narrative potential of reproducing and disseminating visual information to the infinite.

Honestly, one of the most interesting or surprising aspects of Wendy’s work and practices is her ability to make material assemblies. That is to say, the way she can create a new form and proposes new senses in images and objects trough both common or disassociated references that she puts together in the form of sculptures, painting or installations. This is perhaps who Wendy’s thoughts works: as a moving image created by another thousand images.

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Wendy Cabrera Rubio studied at ENPEG “La Esmeralda” an the Educational Program SOMA. Her work has been part of several group exhibitions in art institutions such as MUCA, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Museo de la Ciudad, Sala Arte Público Siqueiros, Kurimanzutto, Biquini Wax EPS, Museo Jumex y Galerie Nordenhake, among others. She is currently part of the publig program for young creators FONCA 2021-2022.