Pablo Cardoza Gallery is pleased to present a group show featuring work by emerging and student artists Laisha Betancourt, Jasmine Diaz, Kelsee Carlile, Jessica Burgess, Caroline Craddock, Catherine Calderon, Mia Guerrero, Halani Rodriguez, and Jen Valle. A group show featuring artwork by student and emerging artists at the Pablo Cardoza Gallery from July 11th – August 24th, 2025 at 803 William St. #3 77002

Kelsee Carlile is an oil painter that blends realism and fantasy together to create memorable, action packed scenes. After graduating from the University of Houston with a BFA in painting, Carlile’s passion for realist and historical techniques has led her to pursue a Masters of Art at the Florence Academy of Art, Class of 2027. Her gallery work, “Siren’s Rebellion,” blends myth and classical realism, inviting viewers into a world where power dynamics are reimagined through the lens of fantasy. This striking scene captures a brutal conflict between feminine and masculine archetypes—not just for survival, but for dominance, revenge, or perhaps justice.

Catherine Calderon is an MFA Candidate at Houston Christian University. Her work reveals her personal narrative to the world, using origami to represent her thoughts, aspirations, and desires. Mainly Drawing based, she is working on incorporating Printmaking and combining both in future projects. She is currently working towards her teaching certification and is going to be a Middle School Art Teacher in the upcoming Fall.

Jasmine Diaz (b.2001) is a Mexican American painter born and raised in Houston, Texas, and is currently working towards her BFA at the University of Houston. The phrase “to be a woman is to perform” is something that has stuck with Diaz and continues to inspire her work as she tries to find the balance between vulnerability and strength – the beauty and the burden of femininity. She paints with acrylics rather than oils because she appreciates their versatility, the immediate results that offer her a sense of satisfaction that keeps her motivated throughout her painting process. Despite the steeper learning curve, the challenges acrylics present while layering and blending are much like the layered experiences and emotional depth of the feminine experience, the complexity and grace. Her paintings explore themes of societal pressures and expectations imposed by the patriarchy, always demanding a flawless performance from women.

Through a nuanced, feminine lens, Halani Rodriguez transforms everyday materials into sculptural works that reimagine the overlooked and undervalued. Rooted in curiosity, her process draws on craft-based techniques and personal observations to explore memory, care and the quiet complexity of the everyday. Rather than dictating interpretation, her work invites the viewers to notice what they may have overlooked. It encourages a closer look, revealing the beauty and complexity within the quiet details of the everyday reminding us that art is not only found in grand gestures, but in the persistence of the unseen.

As a landscape designer, Caroline Craddock spends a lot of time contemplating the ethics of the garden – namely underpaid labor, material waste, and habitat destruction. How can a place purported to provide the soul respite and delight the senses also encompass these darker truths? These questions motivate her portrait series of landscape laborers with whom she has collaborated with over the years. Via portraiture, this series aims to create a window into the interior lives of those often rendered anonymous, irrelevant, or even threatened by a culture that simultaneously depends on them for some of their most essential needs.

Mia Guerrero graduated from Houston Christian University with a BA in studio art. In her work, she explores the varied symbolic representations of flowers. While typically associated with life and beauty, she is also fascinated by the association of florals with the subject of death. Deeply personal, these created pieces often include references to a specific memory or person, and she has chosen flowers that enhance the emotional impact of the composition. Leaves, roots and petals intertwine with these objects, merging and growing together as she documents her personal history. As she continues to grow she’d like to explore painting wilted flowers with a muted color palette to further explore themes of loss and grief.

Jen Valle is a Mexican Salvadorian, mixed media textile artist. Born and raised in Houston, TX. Using a traditional method of yarn painting technique to preserve a personal story onto a canvas.

Laisha Betancourt is a sculptor, animator, and video artist whose work uses the malleability and transformative potential of materials like plasticine, clay, and fibers to reflect the fragile and shifting nature of our social and environmental systems. Her practice reflects on the psychological toll and sense of entrapment creative by the abusive work environments within a capitalist system, while also drawing parallels between the neglected decay of both our bodies and our planet. Through this process, she aims to highlight the importance of awareness, care and education in resisting collapse whether personal, social or environmental.