Sterling Ruby, 1972

Sterling Ruby holds a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Art Center College of Design. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.

Ruby makes richly glazed biomorphic ceramics, large-scale spray-painted canvases, poured urethane sculptures, nail-polish drawings, various forms of collage, and hypnotic videos. He explores the transitions and relationships between minimalism and expressionism. He wages an assault on both his materials and society’s power structures, drawing his subject matter from a wide range of sources, including marginalized communities, maximum-security prisons, modernist architecture, artifacts and antiquities, graffiti, bodybuilders, the mechanisms of warfare, cults and cult members, and urban gangs. His interest in repurposing found objects leads him to use a great variety of materials.

In this painting from his series “Bleach Collage”, color abstraction comes to the fore, but also evident is a quest for a new aesthetic viewed from both traditional and contemporary perspectives. Quilt making, patchwork, sewing, and crafts are widespread in Pennsylvania, where the artist spent his childhood, and he frequently uses different kinds of textiles in his works. “BC (3030)” uses patches of fabric with different patterns and textures as a visual vocabulary, collaging these elements onto a canvas that has been painted, distressed, and stained with bleach. The striped Mexican rugs that evoke Hispanic culture and gangs symbolize Los Angeles.