The Hauser & Wirth gallery in Chelsea, NYC kicks off the fall 2024 exhibition calendar with something of a car show. DRIVE II focuses on presenting the rarely seen car collection of late American sculptor and installation artist Jason Rhoades. Rhoades was mainly know for his expansive installations composed of found objects, building materials and neon signs, worth a Google search if you aren’t familiar. He was also a fan of SoCal car culture. He saw his collection as an extension of his studio space, a mobile environment in which he got ideas while stuck in LA traffic.
Car Projects is the title Rhoades gave to his collection and he treated them as a fleet of readymade sculptures. Rhoades ideas about connecting cars to art are pretty interesting. Parking is akin to placing a sculpture in an environment. Art periods and automotive design trends sometimes run in parallel. And aspiration and class have featured heavily in both these worlds.
The 1992 Chevrolet Caprice Classic was exhibited at the 2022 Whitney Biennial and I speculated whether it might kick off a new trend in liminal car collecting. Now I’m more convinced the art crowd could spike prices on beige 2000s Camrys and Altimas.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter