Image is of both artists sitting at a chessboard table from directly above, where Tai’s hand can be seen drawing with a purple pen and Rayes' hand is holding a cup of tea, sitting in front of the same notebook with doodles swirling around. Their bodies have been blended together seamlessly, only Rayes shadow is visible. On the background table is a calendar, a clipboard, and a zine that reads “CONFLICT, is it you, is it me, or is it capitalism?

"IS THIS WHAT YOU MEAN?"

A solo exhibition by Rayes and a solo exhibition by Cedric Tai

October 10 – 30, 2026

Public Opening — Saturday, October 10, 5–8 pm

LA Artcore | 120 Judge John Aiso St. Los Angeles, CA 90012

Gallery hours:

Thursday - Friday: 12-4pm

Saturday - Sunday: 1-4pm

This solo show started with a door: an invitation to share space and keep the generosity going as a matter of interdependence.

Similar to the idea of having two ADHD people cleaning each others’ houses as a kind of loophole to get the job done, the premise of “Is This What You Mean?” is to set up conditions for two artists to complete the other artist’s solo show; installing each other’s pieces beyond what the other may have originally intended, and to also get external support along the way.

Cedric continues to play with the idea of a solo show as a framework, keeping this one porous, where other artists can put their own work up, change things up, even as it remains, still, their solo show. They deploy systems that no one, including themselves, has to strictly adhere to, just trying to shift out of the places they often get stuck.

In July, while attempting to find someone to help repair their studio door, they were introduced to the artist, Rayes...

At the same time, Rayes has been looking for the right weather, a moment to open themselves to chance, to step outside, and to reveal their luster and shine. Their decision to respond to a post seeking someone to repair the door reflects Rayes’s trust in the flow of events rather than in controlling their outcomes.

Rayes firmly believes they are here to repair a door both literally and metaphorically, opening the possibility for Cedric to show what his practice has undergone over the past several years. At the same time, they embrace the belief that, in helping one another, we are ultimately helping ourselves, and that a solution isn’t the same as avoiding any/all miscommunications. They wrote a set of agreements that included:

— “We want the show to feel alive.” (A playful arrangement between a film set and a pillow fort)

— “We agree to trust each other’s skills / knowledge / intuition / sensitivity... letting things develop without having as much control over the installation” (no micromanaging to keep things flowing even into new undiscovered paths)

— “This exhibition will allow the artists to become friends”

— “This exhibition will attempt to bend reality to our own desires, allowing them to flow freely between the audience and ourselves.”

— “This exhibition will inspire undocumented people to start using their underground networks and ingenuity to break away from the fear of what might happen when you pursue a journey (towards freedom?)”

— “This show allows us to make money to support ourselves: We agree that we can make affordable things for sale, such as t-shirts, zines, even the artworks”

The show invites the public to take an active role through Cedric’s mockup model, which journeys through the experience of the show itself and its infinite neural pathways — an ‘autonomous zone’ where visitors can incorporate Rayes’ emotional landscapes, filled with colors and cutout shapes, into one of the salon walls, wander through Cedric’s mindscape notes as a mini solo show of their own, and immerse themselves in the processes sketched out behind the video installations and works on paper.

Let things shift and settle, becoming unfamiliar. In doing so, the show asks viewers to continually revisit and confirm their own experiences — a persistent need for reassurance that the message emerging between the exhibition and its viewers has been understood, or is perhaps still being made.

PROGRAMMING (PACIFIC STANDARD TIME):

RSVP required for all programming beyond the opening/closing so we can get a headcount:

IsThisWhatYouMean2026@gmail.com

Public Opening — Saturday, October 10, 5–8 pm

Queer Filipino Cinema + Karaoke — Thursday, October 15, 6–9 pm

(Film TBD, all commentary to follow must be in the form of a song)

Make a Rayes — Sunday, October 18, 1–3 pm

(Rayes whispers into Cedric’s ears the recipe for making a Rayes. Please keep your voice low and your spirit high during this activity, using house paint and backdrop paper to intervene in an original, collectively made Rayes.)

(Special open hours to coincide w/ Tuesday Night Cafe — Tuesday, October 20, 6:30–10 pm)

Curate-Your-Own-Adventure / Walls in Flux — Thursday, October 22, 6–8 pm

(No previous experience necessary, RSVP to bring your own artwork to install in spaces we’ll have

available for your work)

Late Night Art Gossip, Chisme, and Facing Your Fears in Art and Space — Thursday, October 22, midnight–2 am

(Food and drink will be provided. Warning: building is haunted, especially after 11 pm)

(Gallery is open but under construction October 23rd–24th...)

Closing “Opening Redo” — Friday, October 30, 5–8 pm

Image is of a cat walking in front of a painting with abstract blobs of orange within blobs of black, with a background divided between light blues and light greens and yellows.

Rayes (b. 1982; Abya Yala) is an artist, curator, fabricator, and finisher whose practice emerges from wandering through society’s liminal spaces while imagining other possible worlds. By looking inward, they reach toward other landscapes. Through painting, what is visible within becomes an index of something that seeks to be revealed beyond the self.

For Rayes, their work is only fulfilled through the viewer’s own body and lived experience. They believe that otherness is essential, that the encounter with another completes what begins within.

Rayes holds an MFA in Public Art. They have received a Young Art Prize, been awarded two research grants, and participated in artist residencies across four countries.