Tate Liverpool announces new display for 2026 by influential American artist

Tate Liverpool has announced it will show a display by influential American artist, Ed Ruscha.

Centred on the driving culture of mid-century America and the emerging architecture of Los Angeles, the display features books, photographs, paintings, drawings, and lithographs. ARTIST ROOMS: Ed Ruscha at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North opens on 12 February and runs until 14 June 2026.

Ruscha was born in Oklahoma and moved to LA in 1956. This 200-mile journey heavily influenced his work. The display follows Ruscha’s drive through the vast open space and urban landscape of the USA. Taking his engagement with petrol stations as a starting point, it invites visitors to join the artist in looking at his surroundings. What comes into view are parking lots and swimming pools, Deli’s, Diner’s, and Nightclubs – buildings, facilities, and urban areas representing the ‘American way of life.

His landmark 1963 book Swentysix Gasoline Stations, comprising 26 photographs of gas stations along Route 66, will be available to view digitally in the display. The same year Rusha developed a series of paintings based on the photographs of the gas stations in his book, creating monumentalised depictions of these typically American buildings. Multiple sketches for the most famous of these paintings, Standard Station will feature in the display, revealing how Ruscha departed from the original photograph removing any unnecessary details, exaggerating the composition and imbuing it with an iconic presence.

Ruscha’s interest in seriality extended to the geography and architecture of Los Angeles. Tate Liverpool’s display features photographs from his series Every Building on the Sunset Strip which includes all the storefronts, diner’s, nightclubs and dwellings along the 21 miles long boulevard. These works highlight the architecture of his adopted hometown as well as the stereotypical iconography of the American cityscape.

The extent the built environment of Los Angeles is shaped by cars is explored further in the display aerial shots gathered by Ruscha for his Parking Lot Portfolio. Building on his research into the streets of Los Angeles, Ruscha started a new body of works in 2001. The Los Francisco San Angeles Portfolio presents intersecting boulevards as seen on a map, bringing together the streets from San Francisco and Los Angeles in fictious maps.

Ruscha is also renowned for text-based works and a number feature in the display. American culture acts as a backdrop for the word painting Made in America 1974, which highlights the significance of US produced goods to the nation’s image and economy. Dance? 1973 was made using coffee and mustard – edible materials which can be related to the food offer in an American diner, such as the supper club in one of the photographs from the Sunset Strip Portfolio. The word OK in Ruscha’s OK (State I) 1990 allows for multiple interpretations – from “okay” to “Oklahoma”.