Sterling Ruby
25 May - 26 Aug 2012
STERLING RUBY
Soft Work
Curator: Florence Derieux
25 May - 26 August 2012
In 2008, Roberta Smith, the well-known New York Times art critic, described Sterling Ruby as one of the major artists of the beginning of the 21st century. She adds, “that's only eight years, of course, but the claim may stick”. Sterling Ruby is now one of the most important artists on the international art scene. His prolific output includes richly glazed biomorphic ceramics, poured urethane sculptures, spray-painted canvases, drawings in nail varnish and hypnotic videos and collages. His work can be seen as a process of transgressing both materials and content.
For his first solo exhibition in France, entitled SOFT WORK, Sterling Ruby has created a rich and dense installation of large-scale soft sculptures, especially crafted for the exhibition spaces of the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne. The installation will appropriate the voluminous height of the gallery spaces, drawing the viewer into an aesthetic maelstrom. Never previously shown together, they range from radically gestural and corporeal pieces, such as the Vampire series and the Husband & Child, to the more formalized geometries such as those in Flags. The entire upper floor of the center will be filled with an arrangement of the artists “Vampire” mouths.
Sterling Ruby offers a counterpoint to the Modernist heritage through a body of multifaceted works that operate by transformation, imitation and assimilation, and are particularly made manifest in these “soft sculptures”. The soft sculptural works also suggest an underlying terror or fear at the heart of the American concept of the domestic. The artist transforms pillows, blankets, and quilts from objects of comfort into ominous sculptural objects that hint at the possibility that safety and security are an illusion. Also apparent is a questioning of contemporary “masculinity” as it relates to domestic space as well as to the traditionally “feminine” arts of quilting and sewing.
Born in Bitburg (Germany) in 1972, the American artist Sterling Ruby lives and works in Los Angeles. He has exhibited in numerous institutions and galleries, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Galleria d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo. He is represented by Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, Sprüth Magers in Berlin/London, Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo and Foxy Production in New York.
This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Centre d’art contemporain in Genève.
The Sterling Ruby exhibition has received support from Étant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, and from Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, and Sprüth Magers gallery in Berlin/London.
With the support of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, founded in 1772.
Soft Work
Curator: Florence Derieux
25 May - 26 August 2012
In 2008, Roberta Smith, the well-known New York Times art critic, described Sterling Ruby as one of the major artists of the beginning of the 21st century. She adds, “that's only eight years, of course, but the claim may stick”. Sterling Ruby is now one of the most important artists on the international art scene. His prolific output includes richly glazed biomorphic ceramics, poured urethane sculptures, spray-painted canvases, drawings in nail varnish and hypnotic videos and collages. His work can be seen as a process of transgressing both materials and content.
For his first solo exhibition in France, entitled SOFT WORK, Sterling Ruby has created a rich and dense installation of large-scale soft sculptures, especially crafted for the exhibition spaces of the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne. The installation will appropriate the voluminous height of the gallery spaces, drawing the viewer into an aesthetic maelstrom. Never previously shown together, they range from radically gestural and corporeal pieces, such as the Vampire series and the Husband & Child, to the more formalized geometries such as those in Flags. The entire upper floor of the center will be filled with an arrangement of the artists “Vampire” mouths.
Sterling Ruby offers a counterpoint to the Modernist heritage through a body of multifaceted works that operate by transformation, imitation and assimilation, and are particularly made manifest in these “soft sculptures”. The soft sculptural works also suggest an underlying terror or fear at the heart of the American concept of the domestic. The artist transforms pillows, blankets, and quilts from objects of comfort into ominous sculptural objects that hint at the possibility that safety and security are an illusion. Also apparent is a questioning of contemporary “masculinity” as it relates to domestic space as well as to the traditionally “feminine” arts of quilting and sewing.
Born in Bitburg (Germany) in 1972, the American artist Sterling Ruby lives and works in Los Angeles. He has exhibited in numerous institutions and galleries, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Galleria d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo. He is represented by Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, Sprüth Magers in Berlin/London, Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo and Foxy Production in New York.
This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Centre d’art contemporain in Genève.
The Sterling Ruby exhibition has received support from Étant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, and from Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, and Sprüth Magers gallery in Berlin/London.
With the support of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, founded in 1772.