Exit Art is pleased to present RICO GATSON: Three Trips Around the Block, a 15-year retrospective of work by New York artist Rico Gatson. This exhibition is the third in Exit Art’s SOLO program, aimed at providing public visibility for under-recognized, mid-career artists though one person shows at Exit Art.

Brooklyn-based Rico Gatson was born in 1966 in Augusta, Georgia and raised in Riverside, California. His work generates collective memory through the exploration of symbols and images culled from popular culture and the mass media, questioning issues of identity, racial intolerance, and the status quo.

Three Trips Around the Block is a survey of Gatson’s sculpture, painting, video, drawings, and installations, including several new pieces created for the exhibition. The title of the retrospective stems from a powerful experience Gatson had with his brother who, after spending fifteen years in prison, reconnected with the artist by taking a long walk around the block. The conversation that occurred during their “trips around the block” inspired Gatson to creatively explore their own disparate lives – a personal excavation made public in this poignant and provocative exhibition.