LESLYE VILLASEÑOR
REFRACTIONS OF SILENCE
November 8 - December 13, 2025
Opening reception on SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH 5 to 8pm
BEST PRACTICE is excited to announce the opening of Refractions of Silence, a solo presentation of the work of Leslye Villaseñor. This exhibition will bring together, for the first time, 12 works on canvas from an ongoing series started in 2023.
With a soft focus that evokes the passage of time, Leslye Villaseñor paints objects nestled in the landscape at South San Diego’s Otay Valley Regional Park— memorials to the deceased constructed of once-precious belongings. Stuffed animals, eyeglasses, seashells, and votive candles, these remnants are worn by the elements and will eventually vanish, giving the memorials a finite lifespan of their own. While the shrines may be for people unknown to Villaseñor, her brushstrokes render the paintings tender portraits of grief's materiality. In her images, the park becomes a liminal space, a silent threshold where loss is treated with care.
This exhibition is curated by Elizabeth Rooklidge.
Leslye Villaseñor is a Mexican-American artist based in San Diego. Her art practice focuses primarily on oil paintings that investigate the essence of human consciousness, memory, perception, and the rawness of human emotion. She seeks to capture moments in time drawing from personal experiences, direct observation, and an existentialist approach. Her artworks, often haunting and melancholic, aim to create a dialogue and connection with the audience by inviting them into familiar yet surreal or dream-like scenarios.
Villaseñor earned her B.A. in Studio Arts from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at The Front Arte & Cultura, San Ysidro; The Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside; Oolong Gallery, Encinitas; Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco; and Demo.Spot, Sacramento, among many other venues. In 2023 she was a resident in the NTC Foundation Emerging Artist Program at Art District Liberty Station in San Diego.
leslyevillasenor.com
@lvillasenorart
Elizabeth Rooklidge is a San Diego-based independent curator whose exhibitions have been featured around Southern California. She previously served as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Associate Curator at the Katonah Museum of Art.
Recent exhibitions include Picturing Health, Best Practice (2024); Memory Traces: Artists Transform the Archive, La Jolla Historical Society (2022); Shirin Towfiq: Looking For a Sign, City Gallery, San Diego City College (2022); Flavia D’Urso: Slippage of a Strand, Grand Central Art Center (2020); and A Show About Touching, Bread & Salt Gallery (2019).
UPCOMING
REVISION
curated by Elizabeth Rooklidge
March 14 - April 18, 2026
RUINS: PERFORMING QUEER HISTORY
curated by Nathan Storey
May 9 - June 13, 2026
Cat Gunn & Mika Castañeda
July 11 - August 15
Noé Olivas
September 12 - October 17
1955 Julian Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113
map
25th/Commercial on the Orange Line
Barrio Logan on the Blue Line
Gallery hours (during exhibitions):
Tuesday - Saturday
11am - 4pm