Betsabee Romero at Ramis Barquet - New York - collection of photographs, works on paper, and ceramic sculptures

For her second New York solo show, titled "Body Shop," Mexico City artist Betsabee Romero, 40, continues an exploration of the clash between Mexican cultural traditions and the fast-paced changes of modernity. On view were 14 recent works in a variety of mediums, from photos and works on paper to ceramic sculptures, most centered on images and themes related to the automobile.

Near the entrance was a vertical row of six Rearview Mirrors, identically shaped car fixtures made of cast porcelain with monochromatic glazes in pastel pink, blue, yellow or green. Alluding to Mexico's rich ceramic tradition, as well as to bathroom fixtures in middle-class homes, these improbable car mirrors are part of a series titled "Stolen Parts," in which the artist cast ordinary car accessories in clay. Another group in the series consists of four cast-porcelain Hub Caps in the same pastel hues as the mirrors, produced in an edition of four in each color. An arrangement of 16 of these pieces was handsomely installed on another wall.

One of the most striking pieces on view was Volkswagen Tire, a scale replica of a car tire made of fired black Oaxaca clay, which was placed on a low-lying pedestal in the center of the main gallery. The color and texture of this ultra-fragile piece perfectly match a real tire. As a technical tour de force, the work is stunning, but its close relationship to photorealist sculpture is somewhat apart from the main thrust of Romero's work.

More central to her project are the large colorful photos taken from various recent temporary installations in Mexico City in which she covered car exteriors with various incongruous materials such as velvet or English muffins. Romero is perhaps best known for bas-relief sculptures made of automobile tires, which have appeared in a number of museum group shows in Mexico and abroad. Several striking examples in this show feature pre-Columbian glyphs and floral and vegetal patterns borrowed from Mexican folk art carefully carved into rubber. One work, Pre-Columbian Archeology (Ball Game), was attached perpendicularly on a wall some 7 feet from the floor, about the height of hoops in ancient Mesoamerican ball courts. In Pre-Columbian Archeology (Aztec) she used the bas-relief surface of the tire as an ink stamp, printing out a continuous pattern in black on a narrow paper scroll. The piece recalls Rauschenberg's well-known 1953 Automobile Tire Print. Romero's work as a whole, however, should not be confused with a form of post-Pop object-making. She may poke fun at Mexico's wacky car culture but, in the end, she clearly allies herself with the grace of traditional Mexican handicraft rather than the crudities of mass production.

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