Untitled (Mexico Red Tape)

L 10" × W 8" × H 1" · 1 lbs

JO-HS is pleased to present a selection of works by New York-based artist Drew Dominguez (b. 1990, Sacramento, California) at Basic.Space. Bringing together Hot August (2026) and a series of mixed-media paintings and drawings depicting automobiles, the presentation explores the relationship between spectatorship, aspiration, and the visual language of contemporary consumer culture. Working across painting, photography, collage, and sculpture, Dominguez examines the ways in which objects and images communicate ideas of status, identity, and belonging. His practice is concerned with the tension between desire and critique, particularly how individuals participate in the very systems they may seek to question. Through a combination of photographic imagery, painterly interventions, and material experimentation, his work invites viewers to consider their own relationship to the images and cultural symbols they encounter. The automobile emerges as a recurring subject within this exploration. More than a means of transportation, the car operates as an extension of personal identity, carrying associations of freedom, success, masculinity, and social mobility. Dominguez's mixed-media works isolate fragments of automotive imagery, from side mirrors and bumpers to decorative flames and reflective surfaces, shifting attention away from the vehicle as a whole and toward the visual codes through which it communicates desire. Familiar details become ambiguous, oscillating between abstraction and recognition, personal expression and mass-produced aesthetics. Presented alongside these works, Hot August (2026) introduces the human figure into this conversation, extending Dominguez's investigation of spectatorship and performance. Together, the works consider how looking itself becomes a form of participation, and how the images we consume shape our understanding of ourselves and others. Rather than offering a straightforward critique of consumer culture, Dominguez approaches these subjects with curiosity, humor, and a sense of ambivalence. His work occupies the space between admiration and skepticism, acknowledging the contradictions inherent in our attachments to objects, images, and the identities they promise.