12.26 is pleased to present Ry Rocklen’s Food Group series. This seminal sculptural series by the Los Angeles-based sculptor began in 2017 and has since exhibited at Team Gallery, New York (2017) and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles (2019). Most recently, it was shown this fall in Palms Park as a sculptural installation and performance piece at L.A.’s public art triennial, Current (2019). Making its Texas debut, Rocklen will utilize the gallery’s viewing room to present Food Group: On the Table, a combination of sculpture and video.

On the marble table sits eight different 3D printed sculptures of Rocklen’s friends and colleagues dressed up in food costumes on a red-gingham tablecloth. These food costumes, which include some of the world’s most famous handheld foods such as popcorn, a taco, and a slice of pizza, are all borrowed from a Hollywood costume shop or fabricated by the artist himself. Each sculpture is scaled to the approximate size of the cuisine, satisfying the artist’s fascination of taking something big in order for it to become small again- a common theme that is present throughout the artist’s practice. Though comical and absurd in appearance, these miniature 3D printed sculptures offer a closer look at notions of mass production and capitalist consumption. Accompanying these sculptures is a performative video that depicts Food Group out in the world.

Food Group is a means to understanding and connecting to the world. The works lend themselves to exploring issues of scale, media, form, desire, subjectivity, politics, and our environment.

Ry Rocklen (b. 1978) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001 and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 2006. He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at galleries and institutions both nationally and internationally. His work is included in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rubell Family Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 2008 and the 2012 iteration of Made in L.A., the Biennial exhibition at the Hammer Museum