STERLING RUBY

Visible through the gallery’s storefront windows, prints of the GHOSTS series (2026) are architecturally scaled and papered across the gallery walls, filling them with deep blue linear marks distinguished by a dense texture reminiscent of pastures undulating on a windy day. The works’ source collages, which combine traditional cyanotypes with washy drawn elements, hang on the walls over the field of blues. Occupying the space itself are several unique cast bronze sculptures from the series Bound Flowers. Couple. (2025–), which represent pairs of flowers bound in an embrace. This coupling provides a framework for the entire exhibition, each element functioning in relation to another, then another. These relationships are presented as a tandem dance, with forms mimicking, overlapping, intertwining, and even appearing to look at one another.

The most evocative examples of this tête-à-tête are the subtly emotive gestures of the bound flowers, which imply a more complex relationship: marriage. Flowers have been positioned in distinctive stances mimicking those of wedding portraits in which two bodies are posed together in a rigid commitment—“till death do us part.” Relationships remain central as Ruby refers to seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch still-life painting, in which domestic arrangements carry a wide range of symbolism. Akin to these intricate historical works, the details of Ruby’s floral representations—the sculptures in particular—convey painstaking labor to which the unified naturalness of the specimens stands in contrast. Flowers are portrayed in various stages of decay, returning to their symbolism for the impermanence of life.

The process of live bronze casting remains integral to this series. Silica, used to encase and cremate each organic specimen during casting, remains embedded in crevices as a residue of loss. Pouring channels are preserved as both functional and symbolic elements. These guide molten bronze into the casting chamber while also acting as a figurative prison, locking the flowers in an everlasting pose. The darkened elements of Bound Flowers. Couple., their leaves wilted and petals shrunken, represent the end of life. Collapsing under the weight of impending incineration, sunflowers and banksias, prolific in Southern California, evoke recent wildfires. The characteristics of these hardy species allude to the conditions of their native region(s), featuring large blooms, with waxy bristles to retain moisture. At the same time, their adaptations respond to the challenges of those environments, with some species holding their seeds until they sense fire.

Ruby’s collages ironically flood the drought-tolerant flowers in Prussian blue, ultramarine, indigo, and violet. GHOSTS, much like the DRFTRS series (2013–), contains smaller elements that produce a dialogue with the larger field they float within. Here, the stem captured in each cyanotype, made from studio garden trimmings, connects with a rendered line to implicate the frenetic drawing as an extension of the flower. This empirical sensibility is felt as the lines overwhelm the space, indicating that the flower is not only a specimen but an icon for sentience.