This content was published: December 1, 2020. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Rodrigo Valenzuela
Rock Creek Helzer Gallery
Installation of Journeyman, Klowden Mann, February 29 – May 30, 2020
We are pleased to introduce our current Helzer Gallery Featured Artist, Rodrigo Valenzuela. Valenzuela’s work in photography, video, and installation is rooted in contradictory traditions of documentary and fiction, often involving narratives around immigration and the working class. Valenzuela (b. 1982, Santiago, Chile) completed an art history degree at the University of Chile (2004), then worked in construction while making art over his first decade in the United States. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Evergreen State College and an MFA at University of Washington (2012). He is a professor of art at University of California Los Angeles.
Watch Rodrigo Valenzuela’s Helzer Gallery featured artist studio visit video
Barricade No. 2, 2017, archival pigment print mounted on Dibond, 55 x 45 inches, edition of 3 plus 1 AP
Mask #2, 2018, archival pigment print mounted on Sintra, 32 x 22 inches, edition of 3 plus 1 AP
Valenzuela’s many residencies include Light Work in Syracuse, NY; MacDowell Colony, NH; a Core Fellowship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Skowhegan, ME; Bemis Center, NE and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY. He currently has a solo exhibition up at Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York City. Other solo exhibitions include OCMA in Santa Ana, CA; Portland Art Museum; UPFOR Gallery in Portland; Klowden Mann, Los Angeles; Laurence Miller Gallery, New York; the McColl Center, Charlotte; Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Vienna; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago. Accolades include a 2017 Painters and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, an Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award and inclusion in Open Sessions 10 at The Drawing Center, New York.
The Helzer Gallery Featured Artist Program is a series of virtual programming created to introduce our audience to the work and creative practice of various artists. While nothing can replace the physical act of engaging with artworks, the short “studio visit” videos produced by our artists can open the door to a different side of the creative process. Our artists also engage with PCC Rock Creek art classes through virtual events. The Helzer Gallery will return to regular gallery programming once we are safely able to open PCC campuses.