Muerto Rider
A customized 1968 Chevy Impala, El Muertorider pays homage to the complex and innovative history of cruising and lowriding in California with a "Dead Lowrider" designed by artists Artemio Rodríguez and John Jota Leaños. In the tradition of the Day of the Dead celebration, the work commemorates the victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as those lives lost at war. The work also offers social commentary on the policing and silencing of grassroots cruising culture in California rooted in a colonial past rooted in distinctive travel routes from El Camino Real (US 101), the Transcontinental Railroad to Route 66. The fully functioning mobile art installation includes four animations from the New Media Opera, Imperial Silence that plays on the LCD movie screen in the car as well as radio programs from ¡Radio Muerto!, a specially curated radio dial with content from dozens of artists, writers, youth, and everyday Californians.
Artists
Artemio Rodriquez is a self-taught woodcut artist and printmaker. A Cretive Capital Foundation Grantee and a Kala Art Institute Fellow, Artemio has had solo exhibits at Avenue 50 Studio, California, Libreria Pegaso in Mexico City, and Galeria Sin Fronteras in Austin, Texas. He is the editor of several books including Jose Guadalupe Posada: 150 Years, published by La Mano Press, and The King of Things, a handmade book.
John Jota Leaños is a new media and installation artist whose work focuses on the convergence of memory, social space and decolonization. A Creative Capital Foundation Grantee, Leaños’ work has been exhibited at international venues including at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the 2002 Whitney Biennial, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
