Sandra Valenzuela’s inspiration for her latest works began with a fascination with vintage fashion and the still life’s of Juan Sanchez Cotán, a 15th Century Spanish painter. This unlikely pairing results in her series Medianoche, an equally extraordinary collection of photographs. Because Valenzuela expertly combines the two disparate sources the result never seems forced or disharmonious. Instead there is a strange and beautiful synchronization that pervades these photographs along with a cleverness and intelligence. Her choice of object matter-fruits and vegetables-also manages to channel surrealist sculpture and painting. However, Valenzuela’s works never become too serious-she always manages to retain an air of lightheartedness. While striving for accuracy and precision, she still embraces her mistakes and flaws. She is interested in multiplicity rather than a single notion of truth-far too severe a concept for her and her art. Valenzuela even plays with the title. A direct translation of medianoche from Spanish is midnight. Separately, media means stockings and noche means night, and medianoche also refers to a Cuban sandwich nicknamed for the time when it is usually consumed—at midnight after an evening of drinking. All this allows Medianoche to be humorous, quirky and refreshing while still remaining cerebral.