Nick Ruston
Encyclopedia
Biography
Nick Ruston is a British artist and sculptor, most recognised for his scratch paintings depicting contemporary popular culture. His work has been described as ‘synthesis[ing] the kinetic energy of abstract expressionism with the iconic representation of pop art’ (Christa Paula, Art Historian).Related to the actress Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
(born Audrey Kathleen van Heemstra Ruston) he lives and works in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
although he was born and grew up in North Weald near Epping, Essex. His father was an Olympic wrestling coach and the young Ruston originally intended to follow his father into the world of sport.
Ruston started painting professionally in 1987 at the age of 12 and has exhibited since 1996. He trained under the late sculptor John Warren, with whom he had an apprenticeship for three years. He then went on to hold a BA in Design Management and Innovation at De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
, Leicester.
His art is informed by his experience in media industries, where image plays an integral part. He started as a Head Designer and from there moved into designing movie and pop video props to pre-production artwork, visualisation and graphics. He then entered into the ultimate world of image and manipulation - advertising. He has worked as an Art Director on brands such as Jaguar cars, Sky Television plc
Sky Television plc
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989...
, Diesel clothing, Barclays, Virgin Group
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
A statue of cricketer Jack Russell by Nick Ruston is on permanent display at the Tower of London, as featured on BBC news. His art has been exhibited alongside artists as varied as Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki
is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname .-Life and career:Araki was born in Tokyo, studied photography during his college years and then went to work at the advertising agency Dentsu, where he met his future wife, the essayist Yōko Araki...
and Mat Collishaw
Mat Collishaw
Matthew "Mat" Collishaw is an artist based in London, and one of the Young British Artists.-Career:Collishaw attended Goldsmiths, University of London , alongside Damien Hirst and other YBA artists....
and is in private and corporate collections around the world.
Personality
Nick Ruston is renowned as a private person, who rarely gives interviews and only occasionally makes public appearances. However, a rare glimpse of his personality is recounted by Art Historian Christa Paula in the essay ‘Deliver Us From Spin’.“He was invited to give a painting demonstration for the students of his former school…smarting from a relationship break-up, feeling angry and restless. Equipped with an MDF board, some random materials, household paint and a handful of images from his vast collection of newspapers and magazines, he entered the classroom wholly unprepared. Ignoring his eager audience, he began by throwing layers of paint at the wood, slashing and dripping the liquid onto the surface and proceeded to attack it ferociously with razor blades. To the astonishment of his unwitting pupils, from this unleashing of raw emotional physicality emerged a portrait of a young, cigarette smoking Brigitte Bardot and the seminal work of Ruston’s mature style.”
Works
Ruston’s earlier works often reference icons of popular culture such as SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
(Man of Steel, 2000) Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
(Bardot, 2000) and Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
(Self Inflicted Discontentment, 2000). A statue of cricketer Jack Russell by him is permanently displayed at the Tower of London. Later works introduce juxtapositions of classical themes, historical events and fine art references - often with headline clippings from Celebrity Gossip magazines and tabloids (Teacher Sex Scandal, 2007). Religious themes also crop up (Sex Symbols Lose Their Flab, 2007). Political themes are sometimes explicitly referenced (Hug A Hoodie, 2007). Much of the content originates from found objects, including prostitutes’ calling cards, litter from the streets, or from his extensive collection of newspapers and magazines.
Technique and style
The creation of Ruston’s art can be loosely put into three distinct categories:Scratch-painting (We love Plastic, 2007)
Scratch-painting is a reversal of conventional painting. Light tones of gloss paint are applied primarily followed by random globs of masonry paint. Then, before the paint is allowed to dry, Ruston makes his marks with razor incisions.Silicone-painting (Wife Beater, 2007)
By squeezing black and white silicone through a caulking gun and plastic bags, Ruston creates a spongy, almost sculptural painting with deep crevices.Slice-painting (Porn Star, 2007)
Using his own mix of oil paints, household paints and several other compounds, Ruston makes a solid block of chewing gum textured material. He then carves out the images once a skin has formed. The effect is a raised image similar to a relief-sculpture.Ruston’s work is enigmatic. It seems to be influenced by abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
, actionism
Actionism
Actionism can mean:*Viennese Actionism, a school of art which started in Vienna, Austria*a term used by Theodor W. Adorno to refer to the left-wing anti-intellectualism...
, and pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
or sometimes utilises all three in one painting but without actually conforming to any single art movement. Ruston uses distinctly idiosyncratic materials. From masonry paint, MDF, silicone – even painting on supermarket shelves (Taeko, 2008). He almost exclusively uses blades, scalpels and other surgical instruments, and throws paint directly onto the canvas in place of using traditional brushes.
Grafik magazine suggests that his technique and choice of subject shows us the stories behind the image and "in forcing viewers to examine the substructure of his work, he also invites them to question the image's subtext."
Deliver Us From Spin
Ruston’s work often makes us look more closely at the manufactured images we encounter every day. This was most notable in his solo show Deliver Us From Spin.“Western Society has an obsession with image, an emphasis on presentation over substance, vanity over health, marketing and packaging over progressive science and spin over government policy.” (Deliver Us From Spin brochure, 2007)
His work seems to delight in the very cultural images he subverts. But any criticism is dryly neither confirmed or dismissed:
“It’s difficult not to be a hypocrite when you’re living in the belly of the beast.”
His latest inclusion was in the international group show 'Viva Lolita' curated by former British museum and noted art critic James Putnam. While reception for the show was cool, Ruston's work sold out. James Putnam will curate his next solo show at Maddox Arts.
Films and documentaries
Two of Too Many1999, Addiction Productions
40-minute documentary exploring two very different artists as their careers develop over a six month period.
Big Fat Art
2000, Scene One
News feature covering one of Nick Ruston’s largest London shows.
Fashion
2001, Wallflower TV
Fly-on-the-wall documentary following the process of creating an art experience from beginning to end.
Which Way’s Left
2002, Street TV
Feature-length documentary exploring new and unusual art mediums.
The Outsiders
2004, Hype Productions
15-minute radio documentary on the contemporary art establishment in the UK.
Television
Nick Ruston created the Big Fat Art Show, the concept of which was to subvert the media through hype and circumvent recent tobacco advertising bans by showing a scratch painting interpretation of the Lucky Strike logo (Target, 2000). The show was successfully broadcast in over 200 countries. This and other work has been shown on programmes as varied as the BBC, Sky, Entertainment News, Street TV and APTV.Previous exhibitions
1996 Hyde Park Gallery, London1998 Hampton Court Gallery, London
1999 Gallery K, London
2000 Ten Room, London
2000 AKA, London
2000 NEC, Birmingham
2001 SAK, London
2001 Savoy, London
2001 Gallery K, London
2006 Office Arts, Essex
2007 Tower of London, London
2007 The Smithfield Gallery, London
2008 Maddox Arts, London
Future exhibitions
2008 Maddox Arts, London2009 Azam Gallery, County Hall, London
Publications
Role Models of Physical Aesthetics catalogue, 2006Deliver Us From Spin catalogue, 2007
Viva Lolita catalogue, Maddox Arts. 2008
Grafik magazine, issue 159, February 2008