Rodrigo Valenzuela

 

Rodrigo Valenzuela constructs narratives, scenes, and stories that point to the tensions found between individuals and their communities, while also routinely mining the gap between fact and fiction. Typically, the Chilean-born artist creates black and white tableaux arrived at through various media to explore how images are first produced, then reproduced ad infinitum. As an artist who immigrated to the U.S. and worked as an undocumented laborer before returning to school to study art, he brings an especially keen awareness of the immigrant experience to his art.

This is evident in his 2013 work Diamond Box, a video that mixes oral history (as relayed by Latino day workers whom he met in the parking lot of a Home Depot) with fictional narrative (the tale weaves part of his own immigrant story into the larger whole). Valenzuela has also contributed five images from his Mask (2018) series to Life During Wartime. These portraits of grimacing men wearing improved gas masks made from plastic bottles and duct tape fictionally recreate the DIY ingenuity of real-life protesters on the streets of Santiago, Portland, Hong Kong, and Washington D.C.

— CVF, USFCAM

 

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Diamond Box, 2013. HD video. 5 min. Courtesy of the artist.

 

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mask #2, 2018. Archival pigment print mounted on Sintra. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist.

 
 

“Especially in times like these artists are necessary to slow down the disappearance of meaning and truth.”

— Rodrigo Valenzuela

 
 

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mask #3, 2018. Archival pigment print mounted on Sintra. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist.

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mask #4, 2018. Archival pigment print mounted on Sintra. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist.

 

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mask #6, 2018. Archival pigment print mounted on Sintra. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist.

 

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mask #9, 2018. Archival pigment print mounted on Sintra. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist.

 
Artist Rodrigo Valenzuela.

Artist Rodrigo Valenzuela.

About Rodrigo Valenzuela

(Santiago, Chile, 1982)

He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Rodrigo Valenzuela’s work in photography, video, and installation is rooted in contradictory traditions of documentary and fiction, often involving narratives around immigration and the working class. Recent residencies include the Core Fellowship at the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Madison, Maine); MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH); and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Nebraska). His solo exhibitions include the Screen Series at the New Museum (NYC); Work in Its Place, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene, Oregon); American-Type, Orange County Museum (Santa Ana, CA); Labor Standards, Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR); New Land, McColl Center (Charlotte, NC); and Prole, Ulrich Museum of Art (Wichita, KS). Rodrigo Valenzuela is the recipient of the 2017 Joan Mitchell award for painters and sculptors, the Art Matters foundation grant, and the Arts Innovator Award - Artist Trust, Seattle, WA. He is an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Art and Architecture.

Artist website: rodrigovalenzuela.com

Artist Instagram: @rodrigovalenzuela_studio

Gallery website: galeriapready.cl

Gallery website: kandlhofer.com