Mario Ybarra Jr. in New York

NEW YORK—The squirrel has, to put it mildly, been underrepresented in art history. It may have had a few supporting appearances in hunting scenes, but hardly the leading roles that were reserved for grander animals, like Stubbs's majestic horses and Gerome's sunset-gazing lions. Among rodentia, even rats have come in for marquee treatment: Consider Katarina Fritsch's gargantuan sculpture, the labor unions' menacing inflatable protester, and, of course, in film, the image-rehabilitating Ratatouille. Even in literature, the squirrel is all but absent, save for a key scene in Nabakov's campus comedy Pnin, when the hapless professor of the title holds down the handle of a drinking fountain for a dehydrated squirrel, which, having had its fill, scuttles off without so much as a backward glance. 

Enter Mario Ybarra Jr. At first glance the artist is a seemingly unlikely candidate for elevating the lowly squirrel into the echelons of high art. He has called his work “contemporary art that is filtered through a Mexican-American experience in Los Angeles,” and his most recent project, shown at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, was Scarface Museum, a group of vitrines filled with all manner of paraphernalia related to the 1983 flick, all drawn from the collection of Ybarra's late friend Angel Montes, who had idolized the Cuban gangster played by Al Pacino. There is, however, at least one precedent for Ybarra's interest in nonhuman species: For an exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery two years ago, he created an ornithological club complete with stuffed birds.

Last summer, while doing a residency in San Jose, California, Ybarra encountered a black squirrel on the street and was immediately struck by its unusual color. Growing up in L.A., he says, he never imagined that anything like a black squirrel could exist. At the same time he was becoming interested in the Bay Area's Hyphy movement, an independent hip-hop community that developed in the ‘90s and many of whose members had their own record labels. Ybarra began to fantasize about a label with the black squirrel as its emblem, and eventually he decided to make it into a full-scale art project.  

For his debut New York show, "Black Squirrel Society," Ybarra has transformed Lehmann Maupin Gallery into a private lodge commemorating all aspects of an imaginary culture of black squirrels. There are what Ybarra refers to as "war paintings" and "peace paintings" — in the former there are squirrels shouldering bazookas, pointing machine guns, and wielding swords; in the latter are pastoral scenes of barbecues, dancing, and singing. The show also contains wooden sculptures of the critters interacting, large banners and wooden poker chips emblazoned with the insignia of a squirrel in profile, and baseball caps with little ears and detachable tails (look out, Mickey Mouse Club). The squirrels even have a theme song, a dance number composed by Ybarra called "Paws Down, Tails Up." There is, of course, more than a dash of tongue-in-cheek humor to all of this. As Ybarra puts it, "It's funny to think of a bad-ass little squirrel." 

For Ybarra, pop culture and the stuff of everyday life trump art, and therefore his weekend picks are rather freewheeling. But we did get him to throw in a few exhibitions.  

1. The Architecture and Design Galleries at the Museum of Modern Art

"I really enjoyed this. There were these moments of everyday life. For instance, a lighter next to something more, well, designed.”

Other exhibitions: Cliff Evans: Empyrean at Luxe Gallery, Peter Sarkisian at I-20 Gallery, and Jane and Louise Wilson at 303 Gallery

2. La Esquina restaurant

"In the lower level there are these really cool tiles, these mosaics, of low rider cars."

3. Supreme skateboard shop

"I've become addicted to this store. I don't skateboard, but I like the stuff they have there, and how they only have certain items on display and you have to scream what size you need to the guy in back. Then he'll say, ‘No we don't have that color or that size.’ It's a funny experience."

4. The movie Mongol

"An epic. A really interesting way of looking at a historical figure. Especially the scenes of Genghis Kahn as a child. It's a sweet movie, and kind of romantic. A good date movie."

5. People-watching in Union Square

"This is one of the best things to do in New York. Everyone comes to the city to see sights, but it's really about watching people."