Edward Joseph Ruscha IV is an American artist linked to the Pop Art movement works in drawing, film, photography, painting, and printmaking. Born in Omaha, NE in 1937 Ruscha moved to Los Angeles, CA to study at the Chouinard Institute (Now the California Institute of Art) and has remained in L.A. ever since. Ruscha’s work is in the collections of many prominent museums such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and others. Ruscha is also known for artist books, most famously Twentysix Gasoline Stations (published 1963) and word paintings that convey a twisted meaning through the manipulation of background, color and font.
The culture and atmosphere of Southern California and L.A. features heavily in his work. Often taking an ironic or idiosyncratic look at the L.A. lifestyle, Ruscha uses unusual materials such as gunpowder, Pepto-Bismol, caviar, and even blood to comment on cliches and consumerism as they relate to pop-culture. He is currently working in L.A.