Ed Ruscha’s Tate Liverpool exhibition is a nostalgic American road trip
The latest ARTIST ROOMS show at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
I once spent an entire afternoon and night scanning in images of a shopping street in Leeds for my student newspaper. There weren’t all that many images - maybe 20 that together fit on a double page tabloid-sized spread - but it was in the days of dial-up and the aged Apple Mac kept crashing.
I was the paper’s features editor at the time and the photo-feature was created by a pair of art students who wanted to document the whole of the street, one shop front at a time, and present them as a montage. I was intrigued enough by the idea to talk round the editor who had warned me how long it would take to scan in each image individually in a week when the computer network was already creaking along. In the end I pulled an all-nighter, not an unusual occurrence on Leeds Student which we took almost (entirely?) more seriously than our studies.
More than 25 years later, standing in Tate Liverpool + RIBA North’s Ed Ruscha exhibition, looking at his photographs of Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, it belatedly dawned on me what their influence must have been.
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5 thoughts on Ed Ruscha’s Tate Liverpool exhibition
American artist Ed Ruscha likes making collections - Twentysix Gas Stations, Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass, Every Building on the Sunset Strip. As a consequence, while I was at the media view of Tate Liverpool + RIBA North’s exhibition of his work, I found myself putting together my own collection - of random individual thoughts about the show - which I thought would be fun to share here.
Part of the ARTIST ROOMS series, which presents the work of international artists in solo exhibitions drawn from a national touring collection jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, the free display includes books, photographs, paintings, drawings and lithographs capturing the architecture, geography and image of the US.
Through parking lots, gas stations, swimming pools and diners, Ruscha documents his car journeys through the country’s vast open space that is marked by human construction. It’s an exhibition that can be enjoyed on the surface - bright colours, arresting fonts, well-known images - but gives you the chance to delve more deeply.
1 It took Ed Ruscha almost three days to drive from Oklahoma to Los Angeles the first time he did it, in 1956. In this exhibition, you can experience it in less than an hour. Not just that initial drive either - this is a road trip through his career. Some of it whizzes by, like the scenery viewed through a car window, some taken more slowly like a stop to refuel along the way.
2 Today, we see his aesthetic as unmistakably ‘retro’ but at the time he was capturing the modern. This may be stating the obvious, and is true of a lot of art, but Ruscha’s work makes us feel deeply nostalgic for a time and place surely most people stepping inside the gallery never experienced.
3 His swimming pool images evoke a sort of seedy exoticism. The clear, blue water is inviting but you’re not sure how often the pool filters have been cleaned.
4 You can flick through Ruscha’s books on a digital display, which lacks the feel of the paper and the weight of the volume in your hands, but is a decent alternative. I like that they left in the blank pages that divided up the images in the originals rather than streamlining the experience. It slows you down and creates a sense of anticipation.
5 The images in his 1967 series Parking Lots, which investigates how the built environment is shaped by car travel, were taken early on a Sunday morning when people would have been at home. Although built from concrete, the structures appear organic - Dodgers Stadium like a gigantic kraken with a single, staring eye, the oil stains on the ground of May Company’s Laurel Canyon parking lot like the fronds on huge palm leaves.
ARTIST ROOMS: Ed Ruscha is at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North until Sunday 14 June.
See your work featured in Stored Honey
If you’re an artist, actor, theatre maker, curator, director or producer, I’d love to hear more about your work. You can submit details of an exhibition, performance or cultural event by sending details and an image to laura@lauracdavis.com. If you would like to take part in Stored Honey’s regular Meet the Artist feature, please answer the questions in this Q&A or if you don’t like filling in forms I can send you the questions via email.
In case you missed it
Opening this week
Matthew Bourne’s double Olivier Award-winning production of the legendary Powell and Pressburger film The Red Shoes tours to the Liverpool Empire this week. Friday’s performance will be audio described, with a pre-show touch tour for blind and visually impaired patrons starting at 6pm in the theatre’s foyer. Tuesday 24 February - Saturday 28 February.
Now booking
Chester International Film Festival is returning to Storyhouse this spring showcasing contemporary independent cinema from across the globe, from countries including Italy, Japan, North Macedonia and Brazil as well as the UK. Friday 13 March - Sunday 22 March.
Something to listen to
Liverpool International Jazz Festival 2026 kicks off at Capstone Theatre this week with performances by artists including Tim Garland and Geoffrey Keezer, David Helbock and Julia Hofer, Zoe Rahman and Arun Ghosh, Robert Mitchell’s Little Black Book, Martin Taylor and Marius Neset Quartet. Thursday 26 February - Sunday 1 March.
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I’m off now to listen to my son read his uncle (Neil Coslett)’s new book Kid Potato, which has just been published. Naturally, we’re biased but it’s a brilliantly funny, extremely silly read - and he’s illustrated as well as written it. If you’re in Liverpool ONE or the Arndale Centre you might spot his themed windows in Waterstones.
Have a great week,
Laura
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