RWFA is pleased to announce the addition of Joe Maloney's exhibition Life on the Road to the RWFA Virtual portal beginning Thursday, September 9.


This selection of Maloney's photographs from the late 1970s to the early 1980s captures the American romanticization with the road, as both a way of life and a destination, that flourished in the Post-War era. As a result of the influx of massive capital spending on the country's highway infrastructure following the lean years of World War II, Americans grasped the new industrialization by elevating the automobile to a symbol of social status. The enticing neon lights of establishments line the backdrop of Maloney’s documentation, yet are not inviting enough to stay, as each photograph suggests the promise of the next location, from Yellow Camaro, Paramus, New Jersey to Worland, Wyoming. The body of the car remains the focal point where Maloney pays attention to the car as a form of art itself.

In the waning years of Modernism in the 1970s, the United States suffered the fallout of the political, economic, and cultural upheaval of the 1960s. The result of multiple national tragedies, including wars, assassinations and social turmoil based on civil rights and economic disparity, all contributing to a strange duality of both the ascension of the American automobile industry as an escape mechanism and the disintegration of inner cities. The car became a vital tool for liberation of the spirit, providing individuals the ability to take control of their actions and destinations. While the photographs do not date past 1981, the selection immortalizes a lost age of car culture while simultaneously being a timeless visualization of "The American Dream".