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A van tipped over on its side, a four-by-four truck run into a ditch, a flashlight resting on the pavement, a rearview mirror reflecting unspecified smoky disturbances in the distance, a pickup in flames Juanita Meneses’ six recent paintings and 23 drawings record fragmentary scenes of automotive mayhem. Smash ‘em, crash ‘em excitement, however, is overwhelmed by a melancholic sense of futility.
In her debut exhibition at Sam Lee Gallery, Meneses locates her delicately drawn vehicles in empty fields of white paper or, in the paintings, desert landscapes rendered in thin washes of color. Suggestions of surveillance and pursuit are everywhere.
Trucks kick up dust as if peeling out in haste, while smoke rises from distant hillsides. Whether war zone or border territory, the scenes are punctuated with weaponry—an occasional tank, jet or rifle.
“Stuck” is emblematic. The paintings shows a flaming field of orange in which a crevice has opened wide and the front wheels of an official-looking vehicle are caught up in the gap. The driver’s door is open, but the driver has apparently fled. Lovely clouds of green, blue and yellow rise up from spinning rear wheels. The painting is a poetic meditation in which life, characterized by drama and violence, is brought to an unresolved standstill. As such, it feels just right.
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