Rhinestones and rodeo stars: 'Manhandled' at INHABIT Galerie revisits cowboy/cowgirl culture

CORRALES — Are cowboys camp? From rodeo riders to glittery pop-country stars, the quintessential figure of the American frontier has taken on contradictory identities, sometimes equated with stoic masculinity, and other times with flamboyant showmanship. For the artists in “Manhandled,” most of whom identify as nonbinary, cowboy and cowgirl culture provides a fertile ground for exploring their own multifaceted selves.

Bailey Anderson’s sculptures upend tropes of rugged individualism, humorously fusing masculine and feminine elements in a topsy-turvy world of slapstick violence. Leather bandoliers loaded with fake ammunition are styled with garter belts, pearls and satin ribbons. A floor sculpture called “BONK” consists of a cowboy hat and lasso flattened by an anvil straight out of “Looney Tunes.” The barrel of a revolver thrust into a gallery wall pops back out, pointing directly at the viewer. Then, there’s an imitation bull head trophy that appears to have been cross-bred with a fancy wedding gown, the sort that might have appealed to the pearl-loving cow puppet, Cowntess, from “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” This is witty, weird, well-crafted work.

Luca Maude Berkley earned a living as a professional ranch-hand and roper before turning to art. Their black-and-white portraits of cowboys look like Wild West wanted posters, except the hand-painted lettering says things like “Cowboy is so hot,” implying that these cowboys are wanted, not by the law, but by a secret admirer. Displayed in rustic wooden frames lined with rhinestones, the work straddles irony and sincerity deftly.

Two illustrational works from Dagny Walton’s “This Land is Haunted!” series combine digital collage and screen printing techniques to critique the myth of the American West. As in the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky and other acid Western directors, Walton’s dime-store cowboys are forced to endure supernatural retribution for their sins. With imagery inspired by old-fashioned comic books, Walton’s work represents an unusual but effective combination of humor, nostalgia, cultural critique and metaphysical horror.

Moving through the gallery, Amy Johnson’s hand-braided lariat ropes in every color of the pride flag are installed behind a nudie-style suit. The imagery on the bright turquoise suit tells the story of how the artist was once cheated by an unscrupulous horse trader. Although seemingly lighthearted, Johnson’s work comes from a place of pain. Like several artists in “Manhandled,” she only turned to contemporary art after being rejected by the gatekeepers of traditional cowboy/cowgirl culture, whose rigid notions of gender and sexuality didn’t include her.

Nancy Davidson, the most famous artist in the show, has been exhibiting since the 1970s and making large inflatable sculptures since the 1990s. “Carnival Eyes,” which hangs above the gallery window, might represent a pair of cartoon eyeballs or equally cartoonish breasts, the gold tassels doubling as false eyelashes or the fringe on a cowgirl-themed burlesque costume. It’s a rare treat to see Davidson’s work in New Mexico, and her inclusion in “Manhandled” feels particularly significant, since the 81-year-old sculptor blazed the trail for cowgirl camp in contemporary art. The other artists in the shows are heirs to her legacy.

“Piper Pelligrini’s Studio” is an installation made to resemble an actual artist’s studio, complete with a cowboy hat, an unfinished weaving, pink business cards and numerous works on paper. According to the artist’s tongue-in-cheek bio, Pelligrini “embraces her life on the range without question.” She “considers herself a Western artist” and also “knows her place and is comfortable with her role.”

Pelligrini, it turns out, is an alter-ego of Luca Maude Berkley, a fact not revealed in the press release for “Manhandled” but disclosed on Berkley’s website. Berkley has modeled their Pelligrini character after the Southwestern landscape painters one encounters at the more commercial galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. However, her pastels are more complex and original than some of the artists she’s meant to parody, making her more of a multidimensional character study than a mere figure of fun.

Guy McMann is the satirical alter-ego of a different artist in the show, who, in the tradition of reality-warping comedian Andy Kaufman, prefers not to make their true identity known. McMann’s fictitious bio states: “Making art is just a small part of who he is. He’d rather be off at the bar with his buddies, having a ‘brewsky.’” McMann’s art consists of cast aluminum torsos, crumpled and fused with license plates and other automotive accessories. Inspired perhaps by John Chamberlain’s abstract car-crash sculptures from the 1960s or the violent images in J.G. Ballard’s 1973 novel, “Crash,” McMann and his work both function as a critique of American car culture and toxic masculinity.

Speaking of toxic masculinity, José Villalobos grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, steeped in what they characterize as “the toxicity of machismo” in norteño culture. “Botas para Llegar al Cielo” (“Boots to Get to Heaven”) consists of a pair of floating cowboy boots with the side stitching cut out and folded back to make angel wings. I’m always amazed when an artist can completely transform a commonplace object with a simple intervention, as when Pablo Picasso welded a bicycle seat and handlebars together to make a bull skull. In this case, Villalobos’ simple cuts draw attention to the repressed flamboyance inherent in the boots themselves, while creating a potent visual metaphor for their journey of transcendence from a culturally restrictive upbringing to a life of relative artistic freedom.

This small but exceptionally well-curated show contains some of the most fun and inventive cowboy/cowgirl-themed contemporary art you’ll see anywhere. And apparently, it’s a crowd-pleaser. INHABIT Galerie’s owner and curator, Marisa Ravalli, told me it’s been a hit with local ranchers in Corrales, as well as local artists. In these divided times, that sounds like a win.

Rhinestones and rodeo stars: 'Manhandled' at INHABIT Galerie revisits cowboy/cowgirl culture