Horsepower

Desert Rider Exhibition Guide

It’s no wonder that horsepower, as a unit of measure, conveys a vehicle’s strength: people have used horses as transportation, to carry goods, and to wage war. Horses conjure ideas of power, beauty, speed, and adaptability. Tamed by humans and used as a tool of colonization in the western parts of United States, the horse calls to mind "cowboys and Indians.”

In reframing these stereotypes, the artists here consider horses and indigeneity from personal perspectives and confront issues of machismo and toxic masculinity within car and lowrider culture.

A dark grey car hood displayed upright. White, blue, black, yellow, and red yarn hang off a painted hubcap with a silver Mustang emblem at the center. Two lights project from the top of the hood, displaying a pattern of layered, U-shaped lines on the wall above.

Collection of the artist. © Laurie Steelink.

Laurie Steelink
Akimel O’otham, Gila River Indian Community, born 1960 in Phoenix, lives and works in San Pedro, CA
Pony
2022
Acrylic paint, found objects (metal car hood, plastic hubcap, metal Mustang running pony emblem, alloy steel red wheel spike lug nuts), cotton and synthetic yarn, adhesive stickers, Masonite, and electric light fixtures
Collection of the artist. © Laurie Steelink.

Laurie Steelink was adopted by a white family, but she eventually reconnected with her biological Indigenous family. Pony is a portal to another realm, transporting the artist back to childhood feelings of rebellion, angst, and a longing to connect with her ancestry. The four colors refer to the Native American symbols of the Medicine Wheel and the four directions.

Three heavily modified horse saddles: each has pearlescent painted panels and chrome accents, with modifications that stylistically evoke a lowrider automobile.

José Villalobos
Latinx, born 1988 in El Paso, TX, lives and works in San Antonio
QueeRiders
2022
Saddle and mixed media
Collection of the artist
© José Villalobos. Photo © Denver Art Museum

José Villalobos’s lowrider saddles reflect the artist’s roots in norteño culture, a fusion of American and Mexican style and sound that emerged along the border. His customized saddles evoke the flashiness of Mexican cowboys and lowrider culture and feature tuck-and-roll upholstery, “candy” paint, chrome, and metal plaques. Each plaque reclaims a gay slur to challenge toxic masculinity and homophobia. Villalobos seeks to complicate and celebrate his own story as a Southwestern gay man while allowing others to reflect upon their own values and ways of seeing the world.

Set atop a purple, pink, and orange sunset, a white horse bucks its hind legs with an Indigenous person riding it bareback. The person wears a brown waist covering, a bison horned headpiece, and holds a spear. The horse has glowing red eyes and a bloody handprint on its rear end.

Luis Jiménez
American, 1940–2006
End of the Trail (with Electric Sunset)
1971
Automotive paint, fiberglass, and electric bulbs
Collection of the Tucson Museum of Art, 1991.30. © 2023 Estate of Luis A. Jiménz, Jr./Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY Photo © Denver Art Museum

Luis Jiménez reframes the 1918 sculpture End of the Trail, James Earle Fraser’s romanticized depiction of what he perceived to be the spiritual defeat of Native Americans at the hands of Euro-American settlers (on view in the Martin Building, 7th floor). Jiménez melds lowrider and Pop art influences together into a defiant contemporary version of the sculpture.

Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion is organized by Phoenix Art Museum. It is presented with generous support from the Adolph Coors Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Christensen Fund, U.S. Bank, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.