Rodrigo Valenzuela, Journeyman, 2020

“I am interested in arrested decay.” —Rodrigo Valenzuela

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.