Eva Marengo Sanchez: Any given Monday

Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to present Eva Marengo Sanchez: Any given Monday, our first solo exhibition of the San Antonio-based artist's works. The exhibition will be on view at our San Antonio gallery from May 20 to August 22, 2026, with an opening reception on May 20 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM attended by the artist. The artist’s still-life paintings highlight the relationships among food, identity, geography, and culture. Meticulously rendered and compositionally reminiscent of Old Master paintings, Marengo Sanchez’s work elevates the commonplace, creating snapshots of her bicultural and Tex-Mex experience. Any given Monday explores the convergence of private and public through her still lifes of everyday subjects, which hold strong associations in the artist’s personal narrative while also speaking to collective memories.

Marengo Sanchez, who grew up on the city’s Southeast side, observes the natural world alongside the urban environment. A striking instance of this is her depiction of flowers placed in a repurposed Knorr bouillon container, a form of “making-do” that Marengo Sanchez honors through her painting. Flowers are an essential motif in Knorr; by employing the tradition of still life painting, she highlights her community in a medium and genre with deep roots in art history. Best Case Scenario depicts tacos wrapped in aluminum foil across a vibrant mantel (oilcloth), a ubiquitous emblem of Mexican American households, serving both utilitarian and aesthetic purposes. 

Marengo Sanchez constructs her work through the associations embedded in social and cultural symbolism, creating spaces that spark embodied, sensorial experiences of smell, taste, and touch, especially through food. Special Occasion captures the aftermath of a grocery run, with bags from HEB, Central Market, and La Michoacana, the latter a must for Tex-Mex shopping. While currently separated, these items converge to promise the comfort of a future meal. Her painting, Mom and Dad's house, offers an intimate glimpse of a convivial breakfast; although the scene is unpopulated, it alludes to a multi-generational gathering. Colorful plates are adorned with pieces of pan dulce or sweet bread, freshly cut fruit, toast, and mugs that reveal the definitive character trait of who prefers their coffee with cream. These depictions are both observations and romantic interpretations of contemporary South Texas society.

Marengo Sanchez’s narrative scenes emphasize how groups gather around food, identity formation, and how the objects we collect help us understand ourselves. Technically rich yet incredibly relatable, Marengo Sanchez’s paintings find beauty in the quotidian, reminding us that our lives are worth celebrating. In the artist’s words, “A big theme in my work is noticing and appreciating the simple, small, unremarkable, mundane parts of our lives — saying, 'this is special and romantic and dramatic and beautiful because I’ve decided so.”