Work by Tony Rodrigues

Tony Rodrigues has a long history of making art that addresses economic disparity, aspirational wealth, and frivolity through the lens of satire and playful destruction. Paintings full of crushed marble create molten surfaces that rupture and disrupt idealized subject-matter of a world in the wrong kind of excess. He imagines a world crumbing, full of glitter and neon.

In a brand new body of work titled Homestead Extinction, Rodrigues tackles the growing housing crisis. With home ownership becoming increasingly less attainable, the alternative that he unpacks is a doomsday scenario that is too close to reality. Commodified real estate runs against shelter as a basic human need – leaving many folks unable to navigate a system designed to maximize profit. Paintings depict housing ranging from simple homes, condominium buildings, to mansions; all pulled from historical sources and market listings over the last few years. A series of new tent sculptures create an ad-hoc neighborhood, dowsed in the same pastiche, a superficial crust of wealth and decay. Weathered and adorned structures, an air mattress, pillows, artificial grass and other elements propose housing options in a world rendered unlivable. Through this fictional “neighborhood”, Rodrigues explores not only what we desire from our lived spaces, but the dilapidation, entropy and rot that riddle a broken system.

Generous funding for this exhibition and related programming is provided by: