EUQINOM Gallery at 1295 Alabama Street, San Francisco,CA 94110
Hours: Wednesday by appointment only. Thursday - Saturday12-5pm
RODRIGO VALENZUELA
New Works for a Post-worker's World
September 1 - October 30, 2021
EUQINOM Gallery is proud to announce its representationof Rodrigo Valenzuela with a solo exhibition New Works for a Post-worker's World. Valenzuela isa Chilean artist based in Los Angeles, and was recently named a 2021 Guggenheim fellow. The exhibition will consist of the artist's most recent photographic series, Afterwork, made from 26 installations created in his studio that allude, like most of his work, to the working class. New Works for a Post-worker's World will be on view from September 1-October 30, 2021.
In it, the artist turns to science fiction as a last refuge to imagine counter proposals to an economic system that only produces consumers. Photography, a medium always linked to the register of reality, this time addresses the task of creating worlds, generating an imaginary that exploits the worst of capitalism to combat it with the power of imagination. Says Valenzuela: “I imagine that years pass after companies and factories do not need the present worker. With a bit of pessimism, I imagine situations where the fetishization of machines has left the worker as a ghost in the global economy.
The works are titled Afterwork and the reference can be a simple question: What happens after work? What do we become? What is our role in society once we do not go to the hit, where we fraternize with different people that we do not choose, how do we execute a social and work empathy if we are only producing money for a page from home. “After-work is when we were supposed to have fun, have a drink and make the partner a friend and support against the oppression of the day. The works play withthe idea of the factory full of spirits suffering the best of times."
Rodrigo Valenzuela, Santiago, Chile 1982. Lives andworks 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, Olympia, WA (2010) and an MFA at University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2012). Valenzuela is the recipient of the 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography and Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. He has received the Joan Mitchell Award,Art Matters Foundation Grant, and Artist TrustInnovators Award.
Recent solo exhibitions include: New Museum, NY (2019); Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR (2018); Orange County Museum, Santa Ana, CA (2018);Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (2018); UlrichMuseum of Art, Wichita, KS (2016); Frye Art Museum,Seattle, WA (2015). Public collections include:Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; LosAngeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA;Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Frye Art Museum,Seattle, WA; and The Microsoft Art Collection,Redmond, WA.
About Euqinom Gallery:
Founded in 2015, EUQINOM Gallery represents emergingand mid-career contemporary artists. Thegallery is focused on presenting multidisciplinarywork that expands the boundaries of photo-basedpractices. Ranging from the ephemeral to the documentary, the program champions work that is rigorous in-process and practice and demonstratesa lively engagement with photo and art histories. EUQINOM Gallery represents their artists and works closely with their clients to create a tailored andthoughtful approach in all relationships. The gallery is proud of its dynamic roster of artists and continues to grow artist practices through a combination of interdisciplinary artist talks, museum placements, publishing, and other dynamic career opportunities.