No shortcuts to Aztlan is Christian Ruiz Berman’s first solo exhibition with Nicodim, and his first in Los Angeles. Berman draws from personal histories of migration and adaptation in his intricate paintings. His stylistic influences are wide: perspectives and the mood of Japanese ukiyo-e printing; the direct and tragicomic nature of mariachi ballads and Mexican folklore; and the confrontation of Indigenous, European, and Tibetan Buddhist symbology. He remixes traditions of abstraction, realism, and trompe l’oeil into joyous compositions that teem with color and vitality. He draws from personal backgrounds in graphic design and architecture, his Mexican heritage, and narratives of adaptation and migration to create dynamic packed scenes. These guides support Ruiz Berman’s layered methods of working with abstraction and iconography. His work encourages viewers to examine what is exotic and what is commonplace, what is authentic and what is fabricated.

Christian Ruiz Berman (b. 1982, Mexico City) earned his MFA from RISD in 2018, and currently lives and works in New York. He has completed a number of prestigious artist residencies, including Fountainhead (Miami), the Macedonia Institute (New York), and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation (Taos) in 2023 alone. Recent exhibitions include Polyreality, Hive Art Center, Beijing (2023); Maternity Leave: None of Women Born, Nicodim and the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); Cycles, Dimin Contemporary, New York (2023); Menagerie, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami (2022, solo); Hortus Inconclusus, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (2022); Unseen Threads, Matha’s Contemporary, Austin (2022); and Juggernaut, The Pit, Los Angeles (2022).