Rodrigo Valenzuela’s work in photography, video, and installation is rooted in the contradictory genres of documentary and fiction. In New Land, Valenzuela presents a suite of newly commissioned desert images on canvas that address the intersecting ideas of home, man-made borders, and dystopia. The exhibition also features three videos that focus on individual experiences of labor and immigration, calling attention to the limits of American democracy.
Rodrigo Valenzuela earned an art history degree at the University of Chile and an MFA in photo media at the University of Washington. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at The Drawing Center, New York, NY; and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA. Valenzuela has been awarded residencies across the United States and is the recipient of several awards, including a 2016 Art Matters grant and the 2014 Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. His work is in the collections of the Frye Art Museum; Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; and in several private collections. Valenzuela resides in Los Angeles, where he is an assistant professor in the department of photography at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Image: Rodrigo Valenzuela, , New Land, installation view, 2017. Courtesy of McColl Center.