2200 S Van Buren St

Amarillo, TX 79109

Stations Words | Bars Cars brings together the works of artists Ed Ruscha and Ron Cooper, who met and became friends during an intensely creative time in California—both artists attended Chouinard Art Institute.  An important aspect of each artists practice is the road, light, and movement across the landscape of the American west.  The timing of this exhibition is also a celebration of sorts for the centennial of Route 66.  Amarillo has been a unique place of inspiration and observation for a number of artists, but few locations have held such an iconic status in American art as Ed Ruscha’s paintings, prints, and photographs of a singular Standard Station in Amarillo, Texas.  In a sense, this Station exists at a literal and figural intersection of an American crossroad.  As a member of the Southern California Light and Space movement, Ron Cooper’s use of automotive pigments on transparent plexiglass reflect and refract light—shifting tone and color as viewers engage and move through space.  This engagement with light and space is uniquely available to those who travel across the vast horizontal plains of the Texas Panhandle.  These works, in combination with a selection of Ruscha’s prints of signs and words, and alongside four of Ron Cooper’s immaculately constructed automobiles, provide an opportunity for reflection on a uniquely American experience.

At the start of his artistic career, Ed Ruscha described himself as an “abstract artist…who deals with subject matter.” Moving away from the academic associations of Abstract Expressionism, he drew inspiration from advertising, bringing words to the forefront of painting as form, symbol, and material. Across diverse media, his work combines humor and wit, oscillating between sign and substance while locating the sublime in both natural and artificial landscapes.

In 1956, Ruscha moved from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles to study at the Chouinard Art Institute. After graduating, he worked for advertising agencies, refining skills in design, scale, and viewpoint that became central to his painting and photography. In 1963, he produced his first artist’s book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, featuring photographs taken along Route 66 between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City. He went on to create numerous artist’s books, including the accordion-folded Every Building on the Sunset Strip and a reinterpretation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (2009). Books, whether painted, altered, or constructed, remain central to his exploration of language and information.

His 1960s paintings examine the fluidity and sound of language. Works like OOF present bold text that compels viewers to mentally vocalize what they see. Ruscha’s influence continues globally, as his use of American vernacular evolves alongside changing technologies and communication platforms. He represented the United States at the 51st Venice Biennale with Course of Empire, an installation of 10 painting inspired by Thomas Cole famous painting cycle of the same name.

His retrospective, ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, opened at the Museum of Modern Art in 2023 and traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2024, showcasing over six decades of influential work.

 Ron Cooper was born in New York City in 1943 and attended Chouinard Art Institute in the early 1960s.  By 1973, he had participated in numerous international solo and group exhibitions.  During this time, his artworks were added to the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and many others.  He is among the pioneering California-based Light and Space artists who worked to break beyond the bounds of physical objects to experiment with the manipulation of light and space and their effects on perception.  In the 1990s, Ron lived in Oaxaca and founded Del Maguey to help bring Mezcal to the world at large.  In 2016, he was awarded the James Beard Award for “Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional.”  Ron is also an avid collector and racer of vintage custom automobiles.  He continues to live and work in Taos, New Mexico.