Picks for February ArtHop: Arts Annex Fresno gallery opens in the Tower District; Imperatrice returns with Fresno Pacific solo exhibition

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‘Indigenous’ by Aileen Rodriguez Imperatrice at Fresno Pacific

Here’s another pick for ArtHop, with analysis by Hailey Milasich, an intern for The Munro Review:

Artist Aileen Rodriguez Imperatrice returns to Fresno with a solo exhibition, “Indigenous,” on view from Feb. 2 through Feb. 27, at Fresno Pacific University’s Warkentine Culture and Arts Center, Ewert Art Gallery. An ArtHop reception will be held Thursday, February 5, from 5–8 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

The exhibition marks Imperatrice’s first Fresno solo show since 2022 and the first time “Indigenous” is presented in its entirety.

The series began with a single work, “I Am Curves of Earth,” which was juried into a Los Angeles exhibition in fall 2023. An Italian curator, drawn to its visual language, encouraged Imperatrice to continue developing the idea. What followed is a body of work rooted in reconnection — to ancestry, to land, and to the human figure as a carrier of memory.

Imperatrice works in mixed media, combining acrylic, black gesso, china marker, fabric from her aunt’s textile collection, and hand-stitched thread. Throughout Indigenous, brown-skinned figures appear suspended, walking, or hovering. They are never static or decorative. These are not portraits, but presences.

Here are five moments on which to linger in Imperatrice’s show during ArtHop:

1. ‘Spirits Surround (Preparing Us for Our Journey)’ (2025)

A single seated figure floats in meditation against a vertical wash of gray and white. Around it, soft cloud-like forms hover, some holding small bursts of color and pattern quiet suggestions of ancestors or guides. A thin strip of grass grounds the composition, a reminder that even transcendence begins at the earth.

2. “Luna (Guides Us)” (2025)
Three figures move across a rust-colored landscape beneath a pale, watchful moon. Above them, narrow stitched elements hang suspended, reading like signals or constellations. The moon isn’t dramatic; it’s steady. The work feels like a passage, suggesting that guidance doesn’t always arrive loudly.

3. ‘Surviving the Wash (As in White-Washing)’ (2024)
Five figures appear midair, caught between land and water. Some faces are patterned or masked, others partially erased. Thin threads drop vertically, emphasizing both suspension and tension. The title carries weight, but the image itself remains restrained and that restraint makes the message land.

4. ‘We Are Seeds (Seeds of Our Ancestors)’ (2025)
A single figure lies horizontally across an earth-toned ground, neither fully grounded nor fully lifted. Above it, five seed-like forms bloom with floral patterns, suspended by thin red threads that read like roots or lifelines. The body feels at rest, but not finished as if growth is coming, just not rushed.

5. ‘Blood Related (Indigenous Connection with Nature)’ (2024)
The figure blends easily into the landscape, rendered in the same muted, earthy tones seen throughout the series. There’s no sharp divide between body and environment; they share the same visual language. The piece quietly reinforces one of the exhibition’s central ideas that connection to land is lived, not symbolic.
Indigenous is contemplative without feeling distant. It doesn’t ask to be decoded so much as spent time with. In a moment when identity is often flattened or performed, Imperatrice’s work stands rooted, present, and unresolved.

To explore more of Imperatrice’s work, visit aileenimperatrice.com.