Jason Rhoades

[2][3][4] Better known in Europe, where he exhibited regularly for the last twelve years of his life, Rhoades was celebrated for his combination dinner party/exhibitions that feature violet neon signs (a form of word art) and his large scale sculptural installations inspired by his rural upbringing in Northern California and Los Angeles car culture.

[6] During his time at UCLA, Rhoades began making large-scale, chaotic, warehouse-like environments filled with accumulations of found, altered, and handmade objects.

[9][7] These works saw Rhoades adopt an alter ego and participate in his installations, influenced by Paul McCarthy’s format of transgressive, intimate performance art.

[11] His proximity to Los Angeles as well as his dealing with themes of consumer culture and machismo have garnered Rhoades comparisons to Mike Kelley, with whom he shared a connection through their mutual friend and mentor Paul McCarthy.

His Perfect World installation, claimed by the artist to be the largest indoor sculpture ever made, opened in November 1999 at the Deichtorhallen museum, an industrial building that formerly served as the produce and flower market for the city of Hamburg.

In 2003’s Meccatuna, the artist began to make significant use of neon signs spelling out euphemisms for “vagina,” which would be heavily featured in his final installations.

[12] In 2006, Rhoades would display the last installment in the trilogy, Tijuanatanjierchandelier, at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Málaga, Spain, his final major exhibition.

Four of the artist's installations took up the entire museum,[15] and a publication by the ICA featured critical essays by Ingrid Schaffner, Martha Buskirk, Chris Kraus, and Paul Schimmel.