Saul Acevedo Gomez: Pomegranate

First Year Contemporary is pleased to present Pomegranate, an exhibition of drawings by Saul Acevedo Gomez that explores abundance, adaptation, and community through the symbolism of the fruit. Moving between drawing, collage, text, and image, the works use its many seeds as a framework for thinking about creative possibility, shared authorship, and the relationship between an artwork and its surroundings.

Across the exhibition, the pomegranate appears in shifting forms: as a figure in motion, a vessel for thought, and a model for collective growth. Its many seeds offer a way to consider how individual elements can retain their own character while belonging to something larger. A drawing becomes a seed, adapting to the space around it; the gallery, in turn, becomes an orchard, where works grow alongside one another and open onto new connections.

Abundance, for Acevedo Gomez, is not simply a matter of having more, but of recognizing the possibilities within what is already at hand. Working with materials gathered from his studio, the artist moves playfully among oil paint, colored pencil, watercolor, collage, text, and image. Rather than treating material limitations as obstacles, he uses them as starting points for invention. This approach frames creativity as an act of attention and resourcefulness: a process of making, reusing, and sharing that begins with what one already has.

Adaptation unfolds both in the making of the works and in their presentation. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, and now based in New York, Acevedo Gomez brings a personal dimension to this theme through the experience of moving between places, languages, and cultural contexts. Spanish words and sayings appear in the drawings, bringing language and lived experience into the exhibition's wider exploration of change and belonging. Created within the particular conditions of the studio, the drawings find new relationships as they extend throughout the gallery, occupying unexpected positions from near the floor to the ceiling. Some respond to the space and to neighboring works; others seem to follow their own course, as though they have fallen into place by chance. Together, they form an evolving environment in which each work maintains its individuality while participating in a larger whole. As one drawing suggests, “nature does not know how to behave.” The exhibition embraces this spirit of unpredictability, allowing the works to find their own forms and connections.

Community is integral to this process. For his first solo exhibition in New York City, Acevedo Gomez invited friends to make marks directly on selected works, bringing other hands and perspectives into the drawings themselves. These contributions make collaboration visible while opening space for ideas and connections that extend beyond the artist alone. The resulting works hold multiple points of contact, complicating the boundary between individual expression and collective creation. Like the pomegranate itself, the exhibition offers something to be opened and shared: a gathering of distinct elements that becomes more expansive through their proximity. In Pomegranate, drawing becomes a way to cultivate what is already present, make room for the unexpected, and create something that can be shared. Abundance, adaptation, and community are not separate themes, but interdependent parts of a practice grounded in resourcefulness, openness, and the possibilities of growing together.