"Born Drunk and Die in a Dream" March 7 - April 5, 2025

I woke up in the same room again

I reach for the door

The floors beneath me began to dissolve

Pushed into darkness

I woke up in the same room

My skull is compressed

Slow and aware

I reach for the door again

This isn’t my house

The demon of sleep screams

I woke up in the same room

Calmness seeps into my awareness

I walk over to turn on the lamp

The light tells me a secret

Heaviness surrounds me

I woke up in the same room again

Nancy Nguyen (b. 1994 San Jose) is an artist living in Berkeley, CA. Nguyen’s work examines paradoxes found in Buddhist texts and aims to dismantle nature into transphenomenal experiences. The act of painting attends to the tension between awareness and the inconceivable, in mutual annihilation. She received her BFA in Pictorial Studies from San Jose State University and has recently exhibited at Personal Space, Pt. 2, with an upcoming exhibition at Slash.

"Aurie Ramirez March 7 - April 5, 2025

Et al. is proud to be exhibiting Aurie Ramirez, our second time working with Ramirez (previously we showed Ramirez’s work in a group exhibition in Mexico City) and first solo with the artist. From Creative Growth’s website: Aurie Ramirez’s sophisticated and delicately rendered watercolor and ink compositions create a fantasy world of 18th century dandyism, neo-Victorian decorum, psychedelia, glam rock sex, and anthropomorphic food. With imagery ranging the full spectrum from saccharine landscapes with smiling suns to punk fetishism and hardcore erotica, Ramirez explores sexuality, fashion, violence, and forbidden foods. Often depicting groups of women in KISS garb (Ramirez’s favorite band and most profound visual touchstone), Ramirez presents these women and their ephemera in endless iterations like paper dolls. In another series, she explores her Filipino heritage and childhood memories by reimagining traditional wardrobe on her red and green pinstriped characters. Ramirez is obsessive in her production, filling sketchbooks with dozens of compositions in a single day. Ramirez’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including White Columns and Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York; Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles; ABCD, Paris; Collection de l’Art Brut, Switzerland; and MADmusée, Belgium.

Images:

Nancy Nguyen, Four Moons, 2025. Oil on canvas. 40 x 40 inches

Aurie Ramirez, AR 550, ND. Watercolor and ink on paper. 15 x 22.50 inches. Courtesy of Creative Growth