Journeyman, di Rodrigo Valenzuela, Mousse Publishing, with Valerio Di Lucente Studio Julia

Journeyman is the new book by Rodrigo Valenzuela published by Mousse Publishing. We’ll talk about it with author and Valerio Di Lucente of Studio Julia that has design the book. In all his work, Rodrigo Valenzuela positions contemporary art as an uprooting of superficial politics. If picturing ruins is as old as photography, then its many incarnations across the political spectrum are a starting point for the artist. Much of Valenzuela’s work calls attention to photography’s affinity with destruction. It is a documentary mode and an embodied experience. The picturing of ruins is drawn out and contextualized in this first comprehensive catalogue of Valenzuela’s Los Angeles–based studio artwork and photography.

Rodrigo Valenzuela, Santiago, Chile 1982. Lives and work in Los Angeles, CA. where he is an assistant professor at University of California, Los Angeles School of Art and Architecture. Valenzuela studied art history and photography at University of Chile (2004), holds a BA in Philosophy at The Evergreen State College and an MFA at University of Washington (2012). Recent residencies include Core Fellowship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas), Skowhegan school of Painting and Sculpture (Maine), MacDowell Colony (NH), Bemis Center for contemporary arts (Nebraska), Lightwork (Syracuse), Vermont Studio Center (VT), Kala Art Institute (CA) and the Center for Photography at Woodstock (NY). Recent solo exhibitions include Screen series at the New Museum, NY (2019), Lisa Kandlhofer Galerie, Vienna, AU (2018), Work in Its Place, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene (2018); American-Type, Orange County Museum, 2018;
Labor Standards, Portland Art Museum, 2018; New Land, McColl Center, Charlotte, 2017; Prole, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, 2016; Future Ruins, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, 2015. Rodrigo Valenzuela is the recipient of the 2017 Joan Mitchell award for painters and sculptors, Art Matters foundation grant and Arts Innovator Award for Artist trust, Seattle, WA.