Ashley M. Bautista's "Bedroom Poetry" at Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts 

• Courtesy photos

Enter the poetic bedroom of Ashley M. Bautista and walk through her postmodern dreamscape, curated with objects that represent the thoughts and experiences that make up her identity. While the imagined space is incredibly vulnerable and personal to Bautista, be prepared to reflect back on your own childhood, your family and the memories that shape who you are.

The Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts (MICA) is hosting Bautista's exhibition Bedroom Poetry through May 18. The art installation exhibits the different aspects of Bautista: as a woman, a person of color, a child of immigrants from Mexico, a first-generation student, and as an artist. Bautista says that "the work is extremely personal. I recently moved out of my parents' home to go to school, and I found that they were a huge part of my identity and life, which I didn't realize until I left. I wanted to explore that part of my identity."

For example, Bautista's installation features a mattress in the center of the room, draped with a quilt. In reference to the caring way to say goodnight in a Spanish-speaking home, this part of the interactive exhibit is titled, "Que Sueñes Con Los Angelitos," which translates to "sleep with the angels." Bautista also pays homage to her parents' life journeys before she was born. Included on the top side of the quilt is a photogram taken by Bautista of her parents lying on a bed. The process included a cyanotype process of chemical immersion and UV light exposure. Bautista explains that she "coated [the quilt] in a chemical and had my parents actually lay in the sun. So this is their imprint...it's to scale, it's their actual bodies." She was inspired by the belief in the early days of photography that one's soul is captured through the camera.

On the other side of the quilt, there are curated images of her family's archive, such as old photographs and letters belonging to her parents. These showcase different stages of their lives, such as their wedding photo, her mother's first residency card in the United States and her father's first ID when he moved to Utah in the 1980s. The letters include personal correspondences with family members in Mexico. Bautista points out the intergenerational relatability of the letters. For example, correspondence between her maternal grandmother and her mother includes the complaint, "You never write me back!"; now her own mother chastises her, saying, "You never text me or call me!" This surrealist and conceptualist approach extends to the bedside table with a radio next to the mattress, representing the sound of loud music Bautista's dad would play that would wake her up each morning.

Bautista's exhibit is the second in a series of solo shows at Mestizo Gallery. The first exhibit from Alethia Lunares, Lagrimas, set the tone for the main goal of the gallery, which vice-chair Bianca Velasquez explains is to, "give artists who have never had a solo show—or an opportunity for one—have the opportunity to do so, and how to do it. We are mentoring them to go from here and to pitch themselves to other museums and galleries."

While Mestizo has been around for almost 21 years and began as a West Side organization in Salt Lake City, the current gallery space only opened up in October 2023. Past events have included the annual fundraiser in September and October and a winter art market in December, both of which featured 30 works from MICA artists. In January and February a showcase titled, "Love Letters to the Westside" was held to bring attention to maintenance and activism to the West side and address accessibility issues on roadways in Fairpark.

With the help from the Chair, Horacio Rodriguez, newer Latinx artists learn about framing, spacing and marketing, including artist statements and press releases. Artists can have their launch point at the gallery, and greatly benefit from Rodriguez's mentorship as a tenured artist.

Bautista incorporates methods and techniques she is learning through this mentorship, as well as from her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Utah. For example, the exhibit is meant to be interactive, and Bautista encourages people to sit on the bed or touch the other objects to gain a stronger connection to the work and ideas presented. She also experimented with a liquid emulsion technique with film negatives onto her brother's skateboard decks. Other aspects of the exhibit include a wall exhibit entitled "Ojos," meaning "eyes," showing photos of the eyes of her loved ones; photos of her mother's plants; and an artist book with accompanying poetry.

Check out Bedroom Poetry at the Mestizo Arts Gallery located at 95 S. Rio Grande Street in The Gateway. See their Instagram page @mestizoarts_slc for upcoming events and opportunities to be involved.