Press Release: Jason Rhoades

New Works: 00.4
12.14.00

Jason Rhoades was born in 1965 in Newcastle, CA, and lives and works in Los
Angeles. He holds a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an M.F.A. from the
University of California, Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited extensively
throughout Europe and the U.S., including solo shows at the Kunsthalle Basel (1996);
Van Abbemuseum, The Netherlands (1998); Kunsthalle NÃ¼rnberg, Germany (1998);
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany (1999); and Castello di Rivoli, Italy (1999). In 1999
he collaborated with Peter Bonde for the Danish Pavillion at the Venice Biennale; and
was included in the 1997 Venice Biennale, the 1995 and 1997 Whitney Biennials, and the
1997 Lyon Biennial. His work was also included in the exhibition Sunshine & Noir: Art
in Los Angeles 1960-1997, organized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in
Denmark. His work will be included in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles'
exhibition Public Offering in early 2001.

Jason Rhoades' installations mark the gray area between art and evidence. Found
materials including building supplies, automobiles and debris are arranged into a
precarious landscape of consumer culture.

Jason Rhoades was selected for his ArtPace residency by the March 1998 panel
consisting of Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie Jones, Hans-
Ulrich Obrist, and Nancy Rubins.

At ArtPace, Jason Rhoades presents Long Long Trailer Trailer (A Rebuilding Year.)
As the title implies, the central element of this project is a vehicle, a recurring theme and
source material in Rhoades' work. For Trailer, Rhoades drove his Chevrolet Impala from
Los Angeles to San Antonio, with a second Chevrolet, a Caprice, in tow on a trailer. The
Caprice's engine was then rebuilt in Texas and returned to California. The process of
driving and repairing was meticulously documented by photographer V'Ketah and
exhibited in digital form. The digital display panel, a "hard-drive flatwork," as described
by the artist, is presented alongside the functional trailer and a second sculptural
expression of a trailer, made from the aluminum tubes that have become a familiar
material from recent exhibits.

Each of Rhoades' installations merges with the next, and his residency at ArtPace is
linked to his project Perfect World at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg and subsequent
exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. In both shows, and at ArtPace, labor
and process are celebrated. States of transition?tructure under construction, a road
trip underway, a vehicle waiting to be revived?k the transitional nature of Rhoades'
work.

Jason Rhoades extends the boundaries of art and artmaking, developing his own
language and aesthetic that has roots in performance and popular culture. There is little
distinction between the process and the product, between experience and storytelling.
Rhoades builds a world, where autobiography and material are inter-dependent. In
Rhoades' world, identity is constructed through consumer products and media images,
and society is thus defined by the building, preservation, arrangement and destruction of
these products. The result is a theatrical mise en scne, one that becomes a logo or brand
of the artist himself.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org