The Final Stop

During September 2017 I began the installation of a massive immersive installation environment at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The culmination of the better part of a year of solid effort, The Final Stop was a huge and extraordinary endeavor that filled the gallery space, offering visitors the experience of standing on an abandoned subway platform where distant trains seem to approach, yet never arrive. I spent a solid month in Washington D.C. at the Renwick, installing the work. I made some lasting friendships. Every day brought a new “challenge” to be met or administrated. It was a mad dash from day one. In short, it was the largest most difficult project I’ve ever attempted as an artist. My great friend and collaborator, Scott Bennett, created the lighting and sound design. http://www.scobot.com/blog/

"Rick Araluce: The Final Stop" transforms a gallery into an abandoned underground subway platform in the artist's first large-scale installation on the East Coast. Stepping on to the platform, visitors are enveloped in the illusion of an eerie subterranean world where flickering lights and distant rumblings suggest the comings and goings of trains that never arrive.