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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Tlahuelpuchi (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Tlahuelpuchi (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Tlahuelpuchi (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Tlahuelpuchi (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Tlahuelpuchi (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren" (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren" (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Ex Situ Canis Latrans (2021). Exhibition view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Vampiritxs (Edition 01) (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.
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Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Vampiritxs (Edition 02) (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.

Alchemy, borders & the monsters of late capitalism in Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya’s sculptures of detritus

, 19 September 2021
Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren” (2021). Installation view. Image courtesy the artist + Murmurs, Los Angeles.

Ex Situ Canis Latrans, a solo exhibition by Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, is on at Los Angeles’ Murmurs, running August 17 to September 26.

With sculptures and assemblages made of desert motorway detritus, Montoya’s works serve as extended representations of the Aztec myth of nahuales — beings that are able to shapeshift into various creatures — but in doing so updates this mythology alluding to contemporary experiences of the Mexico-United States border and the effect of capitalism on the land. As Montoya stated in conversation with AQNB editor Steph Kretowicz for our most recent Artist Statement podcast: “In a way the monstrosity becomes a respite.”**

Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya’s Ex Situ Canis Latrans is on at Murmurs, Los Angeles, running August 17 to September 26, 2021.