The Last Cruze

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Cindy Higinbotham and Monet Hostutler, best friends and banner carriers, in the Lordstown High School band room, Lordstown, OH, from The Last Cruze, 2019. LaToya Ruby Frazier, Cindy Higinbotham and Monet Hostutler, best friends and banner carriers, in the Lordstown High School band room, Lordstown, OH, from The Last Cruze, 2019. LaToya Ruby Frazier leads a public tour of her solo exhibition, The Last Cruze. The Last Cruze presents a new body of work by artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, centered on the workers at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. After more than fifty years of auto production, the facility has recently been “unallocated” by GM, with profound impacts on the workers, their families, and the larger community there. Featuring an extensive series of photographs and other audio-visual elements, this exhibition introduces a significant new chapter in Frazier’s investigations of labor, family, and working-class lives. The developments in Lordstown have brought wide-spread attention to the small Rust Belt town, which has emerged as a political flashpoint and been cited as symptomatic of shifting economic trends. Timely and nuanced, Frazier’s new work in Lordstown creates a platform for the workers who are directly affected, amplifying their voices.