10/16/2026
BEHIND THE MASKS is on view in the upstairs gallery at Notsuoh through the end of October, featuring work by Alex S. Arizpe (paintings) and Bernadette Gutierrez (sculpture).
If you’ve visited over the last couple of weeks, you may have run into the artists. Both Alex and Bernadette have been making regular appearances during open hours, spending time with visitors and sharing the personal stories woven throughout their work. There have been some really beautiful, emotional exchanges between the artists and patrons as a result.
This exhibition has activated the upstairs gallery in a new way. Jim Pirtle brought these two artists together and chose a stark, clinical approach to the lighting, reflecting the medical themes present in the show— beautifully & grotesquely perfect for the spookiest month of the year.
The exhibition will be up through the end of October.
We hope you’ll make some time to come upstairs, spend time with the work, and perhaps even meet the artists while you’re here.
More about the show:
The exhibition brings together two artists exploring the strange, vulnerable, and sometimes grotesque nature of being human. Their work moves between the familiar and the fantastical, with distorted figures and unusual creatures that can be unsettling, humorous, beautiful, and deeply personal.
Alex S. Arizpe is a Houston-born artist and two-time cancer survivor whose paintings explore illness, mortality, physical limitations, and the experience of living in a body that doesn’t always cooperate.
Bernadette Gutierrez creates fantastical sculptural creatures using found objects and a combination of organic and industrial materials, exploring transformation, decay, and the strange worlds of the imagination.
