The San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose, Calif., is hosting a major exhibit this fall called “Road Trip,” a sometimes-whimsical exploration of that uniquely American experience. The museum’s associate curator, Kristen Evangelista, put it together.
According to this report from the San Jose Mercury News:
The artists Evangelista chose for “Roadtrip” not only use a wide range of medium — from video to quilt to diorama — but come at the subject from an array of perspectives. One constant: The exhibit is much more Route 66 than Interstate 80; the artists tend to go for the scenes and imagery of backroads.
Much of the work falls into the “fun” category.
Artist Steve Deo revisits his days of traveling by bus with “Trailways Baggage” — a delightful three-dimensional piece built around odds and ends found in a bus depot. (Be sure to note the crushed coffee cups, cigarette butts and other small details.) It would be hard not to smile at Eleanor Antin’s “100 Boots” — in which the artist marched an army of boots across America in a series of gelatin silver prints that suggest postcards.
Danville artist Roger Minick mixes wit with a touch of the surreal in a series of photos taken in 1981 at Sunset Point, an outlook in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park. They are classic “grin-for-the-camera,” “wish-you-were-here” shots that manage to capture the essense of the American road vacation.
The museum’s Web site contains several photos from the exhibit, as does this video:
The exhibit will be on display through Jan. 25.