Backseat Driver

About

Piero Atchugarry Gallery presents​ ​Backseat Driver​, a dual exhibition joining works by Kameelah Janan Rasheed and Yuken Teruya. The exhibition unites two artists employing their personal narratives and US history as a basis for analysis and reflection on systemic issues in Western culture. While Teruya addresses the status quo in Western culture through a coded visual language composed of commercial icons, Rasheed embeds her work with overt phrases and archival records that, when presented together, create an image of the history of conflict in the United States. Teruya, hailing from Okinawa, which has a long history of US occupation, presents a biting commentary on the overreach of US power and the cyclical greed that its capitalist virtues perpetuate. In his installations, he dissects and reassembles icons of Western culture such as Monopoly money and sneakers. Rasheed, a writer, educator and artist hailing from East Palo Alto, California, applies her research and lived experiences to create visual accounts and responses to systemic oppression in the United States. Unearthing repressed narratives and combining conflicting histories, the artist formulates her own visual language. ​Backseat Driver​’s presented works interlace two distinct voices examining the narratives of place and its sociological framework, while uncovering an underlying civil unrest in an effort to procure action.

Works by Teruya and Rasheed will come together to form an installation that occupies the two stories of ​SAPAR Contemporary Gallery​ in the historic neighborhood of Tribeca, New York. A satellite exhibition, ​Backseat Driver​ is the latest ​PA Takeover p​ resented by Piero Atchugarry Gallery. Working in collaboration with SAPAR Contemporary Gallery, the PA Takeover establishes an exchange of culture, concept, creativity, and perspective between the vibrant art communities of the participating galleries. As such, the Piero Atchugarry Gallery will be welcoming artists from SAPAR Contemporary to exhibit at their Miami location in October of 2020. While New York begins its transition back into public life, Backseat Driver​ will be open by September 3r​ d​, 2020, with social distancing measures in place.

In December 2018, with a space established in Garzón, Uruguay, ​Piero Atchugarry ​expanded his program to North America to a 9,000-square-foot warehouse on 5520 NE 4th Avenue in Miami’s renowned Design District neighborhood. The participation of the gallery in what is a boiling art community that connects Europe, Latin America and both coasts of the United States represents the commitment of the program to support and present the work of local and international artists with an institutional approach.