Anne Deleporte (b. 1960, Corsica, France) is a New York- and Paris-based multimedia artist who has always been fascinated with the phenomena of disappearance. True to Deleporte’s signature practice of covering up to reveal, her work engages themes of identity and enigma. Using her collection of maimed photographs, cut out for the laminated identification cards of a prominent Parisian art museum, Deleporte’s ID Stacks ultimately allow the viewer to collapse a plethora of first person stories into a small bust-like object. What were originally photomaton portraits turn into a fun-house, warping hole where a face should be. Deleporte also directly addresses Sigmund Freud in her large scale photographic self-portrait also on view; shot from behind a red cloth, the artist’s face is barely recognizable yet her presence unmistakeable.

Bradley Kerl (b. 1986, Beaumont, Texas) is a painter based in Houston, Texas. Kerl’s practice investigates methods of framing subjects through the medium and history of painting. Using an iterative approach, and often broadening his scope to the use of common occurrences - his own pocket supercomputer, the art classroom’s still-life, his children’s drawings, a sunset - Kerl’s paintings are a call and response of completely banal yet totally transcendent everyday moments. The paintings in this show, which depict bodies rather than faces, each shift the picture’s surface: one a traditional shadow-selfie on a flat, grassy walk, the other a glimpse of the artist on a pristine cafe door against a busy street. We see the artist move through his day, maybe a tourist, capturing the scenes that will later become paintings, and we see the process of selection and drafting that precedes the play of color and composition on the canvas. In his painting we come to see the artist at work through his portraits in action.

Preetika Rajgariah (b. 1985, New Delhi, India) lives and works in Houston, Texas. Rajgariah is known for her paintings using yoga mats as supports. Past bodies of work include performance; her paintings belie a long-standing interest in embodied experiences and finding meaning in the space of the self. Rajgariah’s paintings are often self-portraits replicating famous scenes from Bollywood. The artist poses her own body, sometimes standing in for multiple characters, significant for carrying her through a cultural upbringing emblematic of her native India. Using a method of painting and collaging heirloom saris, given to her by her mother and various aunties, Rajgariah made Empty yourself and let the universe fill you, a cut out and oversized double portrait. The two nude figures, pressed against each other front to back, have expressions of ecstasy that only a romantic embrace can elicit. The overlaying of herself onto momentous cultural moments automatically queers the image via the intimacy between two representations of women and the artist’s queer identity. In so doing, Rajgariah asserts and claims a place for herself in a culture that often denied her a sense of inclusion while growing up.

Salle Werner Vaughn (b. 1939, Tyler, Texas) is a Houston icon and surrealist painter whose work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Vaughn is known for having converted several historical Houston bungalows into an immersive and magical installation called Harmonium. Her painting from the late 1960s included in this exhibition is a ghastly yet striking portrait. Upon first glance the viewer might not see the figure, but as one continues to look, a ghostlike face with pointed ears, a skeletal smile and piercing eyes with enlarged irises emerges as though through fog. The painting’s title, Promise, alludes to a guaranteed eternal life offered through faith in religious doctrines. This portrait seems to question whether eternal life is heavenly or haunting the earthly realm – or a union of both. An alternate title of the painting is The Politician’s Promise; here the artist makes obvious her observation of the world. She says: “I was born in East Texas the day that Hitler invaded Poland. I've been aware of conflict all my life with Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, Afghanistan... I think that all of this has motivated my work and I have the hope of bringing a space for peaceful contemplation.” Vaughn asks us to examine what is real, what illusory, and to find the overlaps where both are true.