Sterling Ruby, TURBINE, DRAGON TEETH (2023). Acrylic, oil and cardboard on canvas. 220.7 x 220.7 x 8.3 cm. Courtesy the artist and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer.
Sterling Ruby, TURBINE, IMPRECATORY PSALMS (2023). Acrylic, oil and cardboard on canvas. 251.1 x 327.3 x 8.3 cm. Courtesy the artist and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer.
Sterling Ruby‘s style defies easy categorisation. He works in myriad media, including video, poured polyurethane, aluminium, spray paint, acrylics on cardboard, and pen on paper, and takes inspiration from all over: hip-hop, schizophrenia, gangs, waste, American decline, and much more.
DROWSE MURMURS (27 October–16 December 2023) at Xavier Hufkens St-Georges in Brussels delves into Ruby’s expansive practice, exploring the various paradoxes that have influenced his life.
In his work, Ruby plays tug of war with these tensions: his European heritage versus his American upbringing, his early life in rural Pennsylvania versus his current life in L.A., his father’s military service versus his parents’ embrace of hippiedom, and so forth.
Compelling contrasts can be seen in Ruby’s ‘TURBINE’ series (2021–ongoing), as with the acrylic and oil on cardboard TURBINE, IMPRECATORY PSALMS (2023), which boasts lively red and yellow bands applied with great vigour.
Within the composition, collaged motifs take the form of geometric shapes that evoke rigid structures. The contrast created by setting these contained forms within explosions of pigment seems to reference the frictions present in both Ruby’s own life and the broader, turbulent era in which we find ourselves.
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