“Rough Rider” marked the first U.S. solo museum presentation for the artist. It presents a diverse collection of newly created works from the artist’s residency with CALA Alliance in the Fall of 2024. The exhibition focuses on the spectacle of rodeo culture, addressing themes related to machismo, protection and gender. Practice barrels, ropes and flanks, all of which exude preconceived ideas of masculinity, are reinterpreted with a distinct flashiness to assert a tension between what it means to be masculine. Taken as a whole, “Rough Rider” asks us to consider how we exist within the parameters of socially constructed norms and those that endure outside of them.

“José Villalobos: Rough Rider” was organized by ASU Art Museum Senior Curator Alana Hernandez, with ASU Art Museum Windgate Curatorial Fellow Sade Moore and was made possible with generous funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.