Mesoamerican Pop
Works by Miguel Trelles
NewAlliance Foundation Art Gallery
Gateway Community College
20 Church St.
Tapas After-Party
Manjares
382 W. Rock Ave.
Morning
Ana De Los Angeles, owner of Latin American restaurant Manjares in Westville and wife of local artist Miguel Trelles, awoke at 2 a.m. Thursday. Her daughter was in labor. By 5:14 a.m., she welcomed her new granddaughter into the world.
The rest of the day was busy: Her husband had an art show opening at Gateway Community College for work she in part inspires. Then it was back to her restaurant to get started early on the seasonal change with an evening of sampling new tapas and hearing live Latin music.
In Trelles’ words, it was “go, go, go.” Neither of them would get a chance to stop and breathe until late in the night. And yet, when asked about how the day was for her, all De Los Angeles could say was “excited, happy, grateful.”
Afternoon
“Eres un gran muñeca,” a doll, someone said to De Los Angeles at the public reception for Mesoamerican Pop, Trelles’ new show of paintings and drawings at Gateway Community College’s NewAlliance Foundation Art Gallery. She was dressed up for the occasion, in a bright red dress and deep green necklace. Many of the questions she fielded from her friends and loved ones, though, were about her dressed way down. De Los Angeles said people were constantly asking her whether the nude figure in a prominent painting of Trelles’ was modeled after her.
So was it? “Not really,” she said, laughing, “not that one.” Then she looked around and said, “Maybe that one.” She talked about the familiarity Trelles has of her image, after being married for almost 25 years. “That’s my husband,” she said, simply. She said she didn’t pose formally for Trelles’ paintings, except for the ones not on display. “That’s for a more private collection.” One day, she said with dreaming eyes, she would want a beautiful gallery reception like this one, but private, just for her.
Rich, rippling outlines of muscle and landscape echoed through the gallery. Some pieces were Star Trek-reminiscent, invoking questions of what the future might hold. Others were more scenic and stoic, stamped with red Mayan glyphs that were shaped like signatures on East Asian ink paintings. Shadows interacted with each other, often revealing the middle of a figure before the beginning or end. De Los Angeles noted the energy in the pieces, saying things like, “You can see the little monster coming up to you.”
Every so often, De Los Angeles would get a kiss on the cheek from someone, or a little shout of recognition. “My customers,” she said, smiling. Many Manjares regulars had shown up for the reception, and they would end up convening at their usual hang later in the night.
As De Los Angeles moved through the exhibit, talking about the paintings, she gestured to the details with a friendliness that came from being part of their creation. She said she helps with spots of paint here and there. “I remember putting a little white here,” she said about one piece. “Just a little touch.”
De Los Angeles herself is an artist — she loves to draw and is a pastry chef. For 25 years, she worked in New York just making wedding cakes, sometimes for 200 or 300 people. “I love to create, I love to play with my hands,” she gushed. So how did she end up here after such a romantic career in the big apple? According to Carmen Rodriguez, a friend and regular at Manjares, Trelles and De Los Angeles just “fell in love with New Haven” after coming to support some arts endeavors in this city, and they decided to move.
Evening
“Now we go home,” De Los Angeles sighed after the exhibit reception was over, “and everybody waiting for us.” She and Trelles were bringing people from the art show to an afterparty at De Los Angeles’ restaurant, to share what Trelles called “a preview of what Manjares is up to when the warm weather comes.”
Manjares had a new menu for the spring and summer, and the bustling crowd at the restaurant was eager to try it. With new tapas like light, crispy yuca fries with fresh chicharrón ceviche, along with drinks like a passionfruit, coconut, and mango mojito, Manjares was ready for longer days and, somehow, still longer nights. De Los Angeles wove in and out of the sea of customers, checking on everyone’s needs, a pop of warm red in the midst of it all.
Juan Ma Morales of New York latin band Sonido Costeño, visiting New Haven for the art show, picked up a guitar to lead the crowd in Cuban song “Guantanamera,” with lyrics from poet José Martí. Rodriguez sang along and, after Morales paused for a moment, went through the back of the restaurant to her car to retrieve her own CD of it. She showed it off proudly, her jewelery glinting across the restaurant table as she pointed to the right track.
By the end of the night, De Los Angeles had pulled off more than a full day’s worth of excitement, care, and community. Perhaps the key to being a great muse is to not be a muse, really, but your own artist. To create a world of your own to live in. De Los Angeles said she felt wonderful. It was one of those days that made her feel — she hugged herself tight — “thank God.”
Mesoamerican Pop, curated by Noé Jimenez, is up at the NewAlliance Foundation Art gallery at CTState Community College, Gateway Campus until April 4, 2025.
