Overview
To mark the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth, The Glass House together with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation proudly presents Tomashi Jackson and Robert Rauschenberg: The Catch One. Featuring newly commissioned paintings by Jackson in dialogue with works by Rauschenberg from the historic site’s permanent collection, the exhibition contributes to a global slate of 2025–26 initiatives that reexamine Rauschenberg’s legacy, honoring his expansive creativity, spirit of curiosity, and commitment to change.
Rauschenberg was one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century who influenced the trajectory of American art. In 1961, the artist made the Combine First Landing Jump, which Johnson purchased and later gave to the Museum of Modern Art; it was the first painting by Rauschenberg to enter the museum’s collection. Four years later, Rauschenberg designed costumes for a performance choreographed by Merce Cunningham on The Glass House grounds, set to a score by John Cage and debuted alongside a concert by the Velvet Underground. Three works by Rauschenberg remain in The Glass House’s permanent collection.
Drawing inspiration and materials from his surroundings, Rauschenberg famously collaged images, and everyday objects into his work. “There is no reason not to consider the world as one gigantic painting,” Rauschenberg said. This exhibition includes two artworks from the Spread series (1975–83) by Rauschenberg from The Glass House collection: Ring Master and Recital—both made in 1980 and collected by Philip Johnson and David Whitney. These works are composed of plywood panels on which Rauschenberg variously applied acrylic, paper, fabric, solvent-transferred imagery, and commonplace objects, such as a fan. Additional works from The Glass House permanent collection and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation will also be featured in the exhibition.
While distinct in approach and context, Tomashi Jackson’s practice has affinities with Rauschenberg’s: she employs painting, printmaking, photography, and performance to examine how abstraction, color theory, and social histories intersect in shaping perception and everyday life. Rigorous and experimental, her work is rooted in archival research while pushing the material and conceptual boundaries of painting.
Jackson was invited to respond to the Spreads in The Glass House collection during a summer 2025 Rauschenberg Foundation residency in Rauschenberg’s former home and studio in Captiva, Florida. While reflecting on the Captiva compound and The Glass House as creative sanctuaries fashioned by white queer men, Jackson recalled memories of her mother’s involvement with sanctuaries for and by Black lesbian women in her native Los Angeles.
Jackson’s new paintings feature archival images related to Jewel’s Catch One, a Black lesbian-owned nightclub in Los Angeles that provided a welcoming space for Black and queer communities, offering cultural programming, health services, and social support when many mainstream clubs excluded them. Under the leadership of its owner, Jewel Thais Williams, the Catch One became a vibrant community institution that fostered a sense of joy, care, and belonging.
“At The Glass House, we have long understood the site as a place of exchange between past and present, architecture and art,” says Kirsten Reoch, Executive Director of The Glass House. “This exhibition carries that vision forward by placing Robert Rauschenberg’s historic work in dialogue with Tomashi Jackson’s powerful contemporary practice; by pairing pieces from our collection with new commissions, we seek to create an experience that deepens engagement with the site and underscores our commitment to exhibitions that provoke reflection, spark dialogue, and invite discovery.”
“This exhibition demonstrates the power of dialogue across time, place, and lived experience,” says Courtney J. Martin, Executive Director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “Bringing Tomashi Jackson’s newly commissioned works into conversation with Rauschenberg’s Spreads invites us to encounter both artists anew, each attuned to the social textures of their moment and to the ways material, image, and history shape how we see and understand the world. Jackson’s response echoes Rauschenberg’s conviction that art is not separate from life, but an active force within it. We are proud to partner with The Glass House on this ambitious project, which honors Rauschenberg’s centennial as a living exchange grounded in care, experimentation, and the enduring capacity of art to foster connection and change.”
Tomashi Jackson and Robert Rauschenberg: The Catch One is curated by Cole Akers and organized by The Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
