Strand Gallery

July 20 - September 29, 2024

ArtWalk Reception
Rescheduled to Saturday, July 20, 2024
6 – 9 PM
Artist talk at 6:30 PM

These exhibitions are supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Artist accommodations generously provided by Hotel Lucine.

Beach Bodies
Cody Ledvina, Liz Rodda, and Xavier Schipani

Beach Bodies features the work of three artists exploring representations of the human figure in the sandy landscape of our coastal recreational spaces. Through works made from materials including sand, self-tanning solution, found video, and painting, the artists in this exhibition share perspectives on the physicality of the body on Galveston’s beaches. The exhibition includes Cody Ledvina’s Galveston Butts made using sand from Galveston’s shore that playfully nod to the sediments we carry home with us from the beach. Liz Rodda employs diverse media to examine forces surrounding the contemporary body and our relationship to the sun. Xavier Schipani’s large-scale panting and mural work situates the figure in the transitional horizon of water and sand. The exhibition explores the beach as a site of pleasure and discomfort.

Cody Ledvina works with both traditional and unconventional materials in an intuitive manner to explore multiple ongoing interests. Common threads in his work include Uruk (Mesopotamia), one particular reflection of a window on the surface of a grape in a Jan van Huysum painting, local politics, scientific processes, his garden (and pond), death, Dr.Kevorkian, the human butt, coffee, the U.N., and religion. Ledvina’s Galveston Butts feature relief carvings made from foam coated with multiple layers of sand from Galveston’s beaches. They are reminiscent of the surfaces of Yves Klein’s paintings, substituting the signature blue pigment with sediments deposited from the Mississippi River. Ledvina’s butts recall the remnants of sculptures from lost civilizations whose dismembered figures populate museum collections throughout the world.

Ledvina is a Houston based artist as well as the archivist at the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. His work has been featured in exhibitions in Houston at spaces including the Car Wash, Intuitive Eye, Blank Check Gallery, Gallery Homeland, Box 13 ArtSpace, Lawndale Art Center, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, as well as exhibitions in New York and London. Ledvina’s curatorial projects include founding project spaces such at the Joanna and The Brandon in Houston. He received an MFA in painting from the University of Houston and an MA in Archival Studies at University College London.
www.codyledvina.com

Liz Rodda moves between diverse media and strategies to examine forces surrounding the contemporary body. Her videos are the result of investing found and recorded images with unintended meanings through contextual shifts. At the center of her objects and installations is a preoccupation with materials that our bodies absorb and translate. Her drawings and paintings serve as a record of unedited and bodily thinking. For this exhibition Rodda presents three bodies of work that connect to our physical relationship to the beach. She incorporates self-tanner as a medium to consider light and the absence of light through abstract marks and darkroom photograms. The exhibition also includes heads made of concrete, kitty litter, seashells, and other materials placed around the gallery, reminiscent of drizzle sandcastles, that reference the environment and geological features. Rodda’s two video works include found video of a jacuzzi cycling through its functions (without bodies present) and a recording of fingerprints that distort and blur her laptop screen.

Rodda is a Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions and screenings, notably the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL; Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín; David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX; and Anthology Film Archives, NY, NY. Rodda has been an artist-in-residence at institutions such as Fountainhead, Miami, FL; Wassaic, NY; Millay Arts, NY; and La Napoule Art Foundation in Mandelieu-La-Napoule, France. She is represented by Jonathan Hopson Gallery in Houston, TX.
www.lizrodda.com

Visual Artist and Trans-Activist Xavier Schipani explores themes of Queer Identity, the trans masculine body, sexuality, memory, and language. His work is centered around questions that contemplate gender identity, proof of existence, the transformative power of representation, and the emotional resonance of his experience as a transman. Informed by what he calls his “Transcestors” or those who walked before him, he focuses his attention to that proof of existence. He uses the figure as an anchor to guide storytelling as a form of mapping. He is constantly in search of a world where his own body has a context by looking for historical representation of the trans masculine male. The visual result of his inspiration being large scale painting and mural work much like cave paintings and other tableaus which seek to communicate not only existence but importance. His figures emote a sense of longing, exploration, and emotional curiosity that openly asks the viewer to be as vulnerable as he is. The connection between himself, his community and world surrounding it all, is a documentation of change and our ability to expand our collective view by truly offering space for all stories to be told.

Schipani studied painting and illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and the Center of Arts in Culture, AIX en Provence. His work has been exhibited in North America and Europe and is held in the collection of the McNay Museum in San Antonio, with public works in Houston and Austin, TX. In 2022 he created a large scale digital, site specific installation in Times Square on view for the month of June, commissioned by Todd Snyder. He also released his second collaboration with Nike, which included a SB Dunk shoe designed completely by him in celebration of Trans Awareness Week. He is currently living and working in Austin where his work continues to be enjoyed publicly and privately.
www.xavierschipani.com