PhxArt’s Desert Rider: Under the Hood series highlights various artists featured in Desert Rider, the Museum’s special-engagement exhibition that explores the influence of lowrider, custom-car, and skateboarding cultures on art and expression in the Southwest. Through exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, the ongoing series uncovers the stories behind many of the exhibition’s featured works, all of which examine issues of mobility and migration, labor, queerness and gender, identity, or indigeneity and were created by Latinx and Indigenous artists.
Douglas Miles
For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Douglas Miles, whose work You’re Skating on Native Land encourages audiences to recall the Indigenous histories within the lands on which they stand, skate, and occupy.
Liz Cohen
For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Liz Cohen, whose work Trabantimino speaks to expressions of individuality and resistance within custom-car culture of the Southwest.
José Villalobos
For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from José Villalobos, whose work QueeRiders deconstructs masculine narratives within southwestern fashion and car culture and reclaims derogatory terms the artist himself has been called.
Justin Favela
For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Justin Favela, whose work Gypsy Rose Piñata (II) interrogates Chicanx perspectives of lowrider culture and the symbolism of the Gypsy Rose.
Laurie Steelink
For this episode of Under the Hood, hear from Laurie Steelink, whose work Pony functions as an altar piece and nostalgic reflection on growing up in Tucson and a childhood fueled by moments of rebellion, teenage angst, and a larger awareness of her “Indian-ness” in a patriarchal, colonial society.
