Color and Brightness

High Pink: Tex-Mex Fairy Tales

by Franco Mondini-Ruiz

D.A.P. Inc., 292 pp., $20

Call it rascuache glam, joto chic, or repurposed trash. The one thing you can't say about Franco Mondini-Ruiz's work in High Pink is that it's not worth a second glance. Porcelain figurines (the kind you might find in your grandma's curio cabinet) are prominent in this collection of more than 60 cheeky tableaus, accented with processed food (powdered donuts, ketchup packets), svelte cocktail glasses, flower petals, colored water and glass, bottle caps, and other found objects – all photographed and accompanied by short vignettes.

Fanciful, silly, terse, and tender, Mondini-Ruiz's tableaus are grounded in his life as a gay man born in Texas, life in San Antonio's art scene, gay culture, and now, life in New York. Collectively, the tableaus are observations on class and culture, "high" art vs. "low" art, sex, public secrets, and the nostalgia found in an honest bowl of caldo.

The writings, presumably offered as a backstory for each tableau, are uneven in strength and usefulness. The pieces that strike between the eyes are those that juxtapose San Antonio "proper" with the "other" San Antonio, as in "The El Jardin." In this, Mondini-Ruiz writes of the closing of the oldest gay bar in Texas after the San Antonio Conservation Society purchases the building.

"The well-intentioned ladies of the Conservation Society will restore the building to ... its historical pinnacle. ... Why can't they just restore it to what I truly feel was its historic apex – when it was the only place in town where you could score a dime bag and listen to Edith Piaf on the jukebox?"

This impenitent marriage of sneers with caresses is what makes Mondini-Ruiz's work in High Pink as delightful as finding a fabulous piece of jewelry at a junk shop. An ideal gift for the budding conceptual artist – gay, straight, or otherwise.