SADDLE UP: Artistic Journeys Through Cowboy Culture

albertz benda is thrilled to announce SADDLE UP: Artistic Journeys Through Cowboy Culture, curated by Los Angeles based artist Devon Dejardin. The exhibition brings together a young generation of artists who put their mark on the idea of what “Western” means in their practice.

The American West continues to capture the imagination. Values that emerged from the cowboy ethos, with its independent spirit and rugged individualism, the connection to the land and the immediate experience of nature’s beauty and force have resonated with generations worldwide.   This influence is felt across popular culture, including fashion, art and music, with country music dominating the charts. 

This group exhibition presents artists who have given voice to personal experience while others have been challenged to interpret the idea of cowboy culture through a contemporary, and often urban, lens.  Saddle Up to explore the hold the Wild West has on our imagination, lived or imagined.

Rooted in tradition yet vibrant and dynamic, the spirit of cowboy culture and the American West in 2025 feels distinctly renewed. A societal shift, born from the pandemic-driven migration away from cities, has ushered in a quieter, more contemplative life in the countryside. Where change once emerged from coastal metropolises, it now rises from the heart of the plains. – Devon DeJardin

The exhibition’s theme is further explored through a selection of artists and designers with Friedman Benda including Carmen D'Apollonio, Raphael Navot, Ferréol Babin, Faye Toogood and Daniel Arsham. Known for their unique approaches to materials, form, and narrative, each capture the spirit of radical authenticity, as paralleled by cowboy culture, through their practices. Evoking the expansive topography of the American West through organic shapes and raw textures, the works on view expand on the show’s premise through the perspectives of materiality and function.