Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present The light that passes through us, a solo exhibition by Mexico City-based artist Carlos Rodriguez. The title of the exhibition, The light that passes through us, references William Irwin Thompson’s essay Time falling bodies take to light, where reflections on myth, sexuality, and imagination are explored as cultural forces that continue to form and shape our present. Drawing references from Mexican Muralism, Jared French, William Blake, the Greek frescoes, and Mesoamerican sculptures, the artists creates connections to the past while simultaneously opening dialogues to the present.

Rodriguez first built his visual language through instinct, born from explicit albeit tender imagery. Through these early explorations, the artist discovered how desire, eros, could be a powerful catalyst and conversation. Reflecting on the weight of censorship surrounding the male body, and the lack of inclusive representation, Rodriguez’s work expands upon our cultural dialogue, ultimately opening new interpretations and narratives of our shared histories and identities.

Formally, the artist’s practice is rooted in the constant exploration of the body. The male figure becomes both monumental and fragile. Not simply inhabiting the canvas, they expand to fill it completely, testing the limits of their own containment. The desert often appears as a recurring theme, as a place of solitude and revelation. Within these landscapes, flowers appear as seeds of transformation, birds as messengers.

The light that passes through us proposes a visual mysticism which is both personal and collective, where fragments of myth, eroticism and memory are transformed into a shared legacy.