Sterling Ruby
Encyclopedia
Sterling Ruby is a contemporary American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Ruby was born in Bitburg
, Germany, to a Dutch mother and an American father, and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and near Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania.
in Lancaster, PA
. In 2001, he received his BA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
. In 2003, he relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled in the MFA program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Since 2010 Sterling Ruby is lecturing as a professor of art at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
called Ruby "one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century. That's only eight years, of course," she added, "but the claim may stick."
He takes his subject matter from a wide range of sources, including marginalized societies, maximum security prisons, modernist architecture, artifacts and antiquities, graffiti, the mechanisms of warfare, and urban gangs. His work has often been cited as invoking minimalism as a means to expose underlying systems and social power structures.
MapplethorpeX7. Richard Flood, teNues Publishing Group, Kempen, Germany, 2011.
New Dystopia. Mark Von Shlegell, Sternberg Press, Berlin in collaboration with CAPC Musee d’art Contemporain de Bourdeaux, France, 2011.
Sterling Ruby Desktop Vol.1. The Pace Gallery, Beijing, China, 2011.
Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting. Schwabsky, Barry. Text by Jan Tumlir. London, Phaidon Press, 2011.
Permanent Mimesis: An Exhibition about Simulation and Realism. GAM-Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy. 2010
Permanent Trouble: Kunst aus der Sammlung Kopp Munchen. Germany: Snoeck Verlagsgesellschaft, 2010.
Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s. Text by David S. Rubin. Texas: San Antonio Museum of Art, 2010.
Rive Droite/ Rive Gauche. Zurich:JRP/Ringier, Paris: Marc Jancou Contemporary, 2010.
Sterling Ruby: Ashtrays. Galerie Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels, Belgium, 2010.
Sterling Ruby: Ceramics 2007-2010. Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010.
Beg,Borrow,and Steal. Miami: Rubell Family Collection, 2009
New York Minute. Kathy Grayson. Published by O.H.W.O.W, 2009.
Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting. Bob Nickas, Phaidon Press Inc., 2009.
Sterling Ruby. Robert Hobbs, Jorg Heiser, Alessandro Rabottini and Sterling Ruby, JRP Ringier, 2009.
Sterling Ruby Robert Mappelthorpe. Brussels, Belgium: Xavier Hufkens, 2009.
The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture. Saatchi Gallery. Rizzoli International Publications, 2009.
Vitamin 3-D: New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation. Phaidon Press Inc., 2009.
If You Destroy the Image, You'll Destroy the Thing in Itself. Bergen: Norway: Bergen Kunsthall, 2008.
Stray Alchemists. Beijing, China: Ullens Center for the Arts, 2008.
Sterling Ruby Chron. New York:The Drawing Center, 2008.
Sterling Ruby Supermax 2008. Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008.
Red Eye: L.A. Artists from the Rubell Family Collection. Miami: Rubell Family Collection, 2007.
2006 California Biennial: Orange County Museum of Art. Michael Ned Holte, Orange County, California, 2006.
The Pantagruel Syndrome. Torino, Italy: T1 Torino Triennale Tremusei, 2005.
The Principles of Eternity. Rachel Corbett, Artnet.com http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/corbett/sterling-ruby-9-23-11.asp
Art in Review: Sterling Ruby and Lucio Fontana. Ken Johnson, The New York Times, September 22, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/arts/design/sterling-ruby-and-lucio-fontana.html
Carol Bove/Sterling Ruby/Dana Schutz. Daniel Kunitz, Modern Painters, August 5, 2010. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35400/carol-bove-sterling-ruby-dana-schutz/
The Promised Land? Will Portugal Arte 10 Become a Fixture on the Art World Calendar? Marina Cashdan, Huffingtonpost.com, August 3, 2010. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marina-cashdan/the-promise-land-will-por_b_666653.html
Carol Bove, Sterling Ruby, Dana Schutz.Merrily Kerr, Time Out New York, Issue 775, 2010.http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/art/77070/carol-bove-sterling-ruby-dana-schutz
The Masculine Mystique: Houseago, Ruby & Kyack, Degan Pener, Paul Young, Andrew Berardini, Angeleno Magazine, April 7, 2010 http://losangeles.modernluxury.com/style/masculine-mystique-houseago-ruby-kyack
Art and Incarceration: Sterling Ruby's Stark Cages, Matt Kelley, Criminal Justice, March 25, 2010 http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/art_and_incarceration_sterling_rubys_stark_cages
Sterling Ruby: Sincerely Hostile, João Ribas, Flash Art int. Ed., XLIII.271, Mar.- Apr. 2010: 80-84. http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=articolo_det&id_art=529&det=ok&title=STERLING-RUBY
Best in Show/Sterling Ruby's Cage Heat, Linda Yablonsky, T Magazine, The New York Times Style Magazine, February 11, 2010 http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/best-in-show-sterling-rubys-caged-heat/
New York Times Round Up: Make Room for Video, Performances and Paint. Roberta Smith, The New York Times, December 31, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/arts/design/03emerge.html
Unearthed Classics and Reinvented Forms: The Best Art of 2009. Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, December 20, 2009 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/12/best_of_art_2009.html
Sterling Ruby in New York. Andrew Russeth, Artinfo.com, November 6, 2009 http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33159/sterling-ruby-in-new-york/
Sterling Ruby, Kevin West, W Magazine, November 2009 http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2009/11/art_ruby
New Photography 2009, Museum of Modern Art, New York. MoMA Multimedia Video Interview http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/891
Weekend Update, Walter Robinson, artnet Magazine, June 2009 http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/sterling-ruby6-20-09.asp
Who is Sterling Ruby? Julian Myers, Frieze Magazine, April 2009 http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/who_is_sterling_ruby/
Brief Reflection on Sterling Ruby. Ed Schad. I call it ORANGES blog, July 22, 2008 http://icallitoranges.blogspot.com/2008/07/brief-reflection-on-sterling-ruby.html
Art in Review, Sterling Ruby, Chron, Kiln Works, Roberta Smith, The New York Times, March 21, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/arts/design/21gall.html
Bitburg
Bitburg It is situated approx. 25 km north-west of Trier, and 50 km north-east of Luxembourg . One American airbase, Spangdahlem Air Base, is located nearby.-History:...
, Germany, to a Dutch mother and an American father, and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and near Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania.
Education
Sterling Ruby went to agriculture school and worked in construction before studying art at the Pennsylvania School of Art and DesignPennsylvania College of Art and Design
The Pennsylvania College of Art & Design is a professional art college located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania USA.The college offers Bachelor of Fine Arts programs in fine arts, graphic design, illustration, and photography...
in Lancaster, PA
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
. In 2001, he received his BA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. In 2003, he relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled in the MFA program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Since 2010 Sterling Ruby is lecturing as a professor of art at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
Work
Sterling Ruby is a multi-disciplinary artist who has become known for his richly glazed biomorphic ceramics, large-scale spray-painted canvases, poured urethane sculptures, various forms of collage, and video work. In a 2008 review, New York Times art critic Roberta SmithRoberta Smith
Roberta Smith is an art critic for the New York Times and a lecturer on contemporary art.Born in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Smith studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her career in the arts started in 1968 while an undergraduate summer intern at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in...
called Ruby "one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century. That's only eight years, of course," she added, "but the claim may stick."
He takes his subject matter from a wide range of sources, including marginalized societies, maximum security prisons, modernist architecture, artifacts and antiquities, graffiti, the mechanisms of warfare, and urban gangs. His work has often been cited as invoking minimalism as a means to expose underlying systems and social power structures.
Exhibitions
Sterling Ruby’s most recent solo exhibitions include VAMPIRE The Pace Gallery, Beijing (2011), Sterling Ruby & Lucio Fontana, Andrea Rosen, New York (2011), Sterling Ruby, I AM NOT FREE BECAUSE I CAN BE EXPLODED ANYTIME, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2011), Sterling Ruby Paintings, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2011), 2TRAPS, PaceWildenstein, New York (2010), Sterling Ruby/Robert Mapplethorpe, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2009), SUPERMAX 2008 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CHRON at the Drawing Center, New York (2008), and Grid Ripper, Galleria d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy (2008). Ruby’s work was also included in the recent group exhibitions New Works in Ceramics, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (2011), George Herms: Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2011), Silence and Time, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2011), At Capacity: Large Scale Works from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (2011), Dystopia, CAPC Musee D’Art Contemporain De Bourdeaux, Bourdeaux, France (2011), Lustwarande 2011-Raw, Park De Oude Warande, Museum De Pont, Tilburg, Netherlands (2011), Permanent Mimesis: An Exhibition on Realism and Simulation, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino, Italy (2010), New Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2009), Five, Baibakov Art Projects, Red October Chocolate Factory, Moscow (2009), Dirt on Delight, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2008), and Stray Alchemists, Ullens Center of Contemporary Art, Beijing (2008). His work can be found in numerous public collections worldwide, including the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway; Contemporary and Modern Art Museum of Trento and Rovereto, Italy; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Nasher Museum, Dallas, TX; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Canada; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Tate Modern, London, England; and the Yokohama Museum, Japan.Publications
Eslöv Wide Shut: 100 year Anniversary of Eslöv. (exhibition catalog) Eslöv, Sweden and Mallorca Landings, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2011.MapplethorpeX7. Richard Flood, teNues Publishing Group, Kempen, Germany, 2011.
New Dystopia. Mark Von Shlegell, Sternberg Press, Berlin in collaboration with CAPC Musee d’art Contemporain de Bourdeaux, France, 2011.
Sterling Ruby Desktop Vol.1. The Pace Gallery, Beijing, China, 2011.
Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting. Schwabsky, Barry. Text by Jan Tumlir. London, Phaidon Press, 2011.
Permanent Mimesis: An Exhibition about Simulation and Realism. GAM-Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy. 2010
Permanent Trouble: Kunst aus der Sammlung Kopp Munchen. Germany: Snoeck Verlagsgesellschaft, 2010.
Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s. Text by David S. Rubin. Texas: San Antonio Museum of Art, 2010.
Rive Droite/ Rive Gauche. Zurich:JRP/Ringier, Paris: Marc Jancou Contemporary, 2010.
Sterling Ruby: Ashtrays. Galerie Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels, Belgium, 2010.
Sterling Ruby: Ceramics 2007-2010. Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010.
Beg,Borrow,and Steal. Miami: Rubell Family Collection, 2009
New York Minute. Kathy Grayson. Published by O.H.W.O.W, 2009.
Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting. Bob Nickas, Phaidon Press Inc., 2009.
Sterling Ruby. Robert Hobbs, Jorg Heiser, Alessandro Rabottini and Sterling Ruby, JRP Ringier, 2009.
Sterling Ruby Robert Mappelthorpe. Brussels, Belgium: Xavier Hufkens, 2009.
The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture. Saatchi Gallery. Rizzoli International Publications, 2009.
Vitamin 3-D: New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation. Phaidon Press Inc., 2009.
If You Destroy the Image, You'll Destroy the Thing in Itself. Bergen: Norway: Bergen Kunsthall, 2008.
Stray Alchemists. Beijing, China: Ullens Center for the Arts, 2008.
Sterling Ruby Chron. New York:The Drawing Center, 2008.
Sterling Ruby Supermax 2008. Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008.
Red Eye: L.A. Artists from the Rubell Family Collection. Miami: Rubell Family Collection, 2007.
2006 California Biennial: Orange County Museum of Art. Michael Ned Holte, Orange County, California, 2006.
The Pantagruel Syndrome. Torino, Italy: T1 Torino Triennale Tremusei, 2005.
Further reading
21 Questions for Sterling Ruby. Artinfo.com. October 11, 2011. http://www.artinfo.com/news/category/193/artinfo-questionnaire/The Principles of Eternity. Rachel Corbett, Artnet.com http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/corbett/sterling-ruby-9-23-11.asp
Art in Review: Sterling Ruby and Lucio Fontana. Ken Johnson, The New York Times, September 22, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/arts/design/sterling-ruby-and-lucio-fontana.html
Carol Bove/Sterling Ruby/Dana Schutz. Daniel Kunitz, Modern Painters, August 5, 2010. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35400/carol-bove-sterling-ruby-dana-schutz/
The Promised Land? Will Portugal Arte 10 Become a Fixture on the Art World Calendar? Marina Cashdan, Huffingtonpost.com, August 3, 2010. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marina-cashdan/the-promise-land-will-por_b_666653.html
Carol Bove, Sterling Ruby, Dana Schutz.Merrily Kerr, Time Out New York, Issue 775, 2010.http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/art/77070/carol-bove-sterling-ruby-dana-schutz
The Masculine Mystique: Houseago, Ruby & Kyack, Degan Pener, Paul Young, Andrew Berardini, Angeleno Magazine, April 7, 2010 http://losangeles.modernluxury.com/style/masculine-mystique-houseago-ruby-kyack
Art and Incarceration: Sterling Ruby's Stark Cages, Matt Kelley, Criminal Justice, March 25, 2010 http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/art_and_incarceration_sterling_rubys_stark_cages
Sterling Ruby: Sincerely Hostile, João Ribas, Flash Art int. Ed., XLIII.271, Mar.- Apr. 2010: 80-84. http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=articolo_det&id_art=529&det=ok&title=STERLING-RUBY
Best in Show/Sterling Ruby's Cage Heat, Linda Yablonsky, T Magazine, The New York Times Style Magazine, February 11, 2010 http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/best-in-show-sterling-rubys-caged-heat/
New York Times Round Up: Make Room for Video, Performances and Paint. Roberta Smith, The New York Times, December 31, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/arts/design/03emerge.html
Unearthed Classics and Reinvented Forms: The Best Art of 2009. Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, December 20, 2009 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/12/best_of_art_2009.html
Sterling Ruby in New York. Andrew Russeth, Artinfo.com, November 6, 2009 http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33159/sterling-ruby-in-new-york/
Sterling Ruby, Kevin West, W Magazine, November 2009 http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2009/11/art_ruby
New Photography 2009, Museum of Modern Art, New York. MoMA Multimedia Video Interview http://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/891
Weekend Update, Walter Robinson, artnet Magazine, June 2009 http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/sterling-ruby6-20-09.asp
Who is Sterling Ruby? Julian Myers, Frieze Magazine, April 2009 http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/who_is_sterling_ruby/
Brief Reflection on Sterling Ruby. Ed Schad. I call it ORANGES blog, July 22, 2008 http://icallitoranges.blogspot.com/2008/07/brief-reflection-on-sterling-ruby.html
Art in Review, Sterling Ruby, Chron, Kiln Works, Roberta Smith, The New York Times, March 21, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/arts/design/21gall.html
External links
- Homecoming - a conversation with Sterling Ruby - April 27, 2011
- Sterling Ruby at Xavier HufkensXavier HufkensXavier Hufkens is a European gallery owner and dealer in contemporary art. Since its founding in 1987, his gallery has been committed to the long term representation of established, mid-career and emerging artists. The gallery deals in a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography,...
, Brussels - Sterling Ruby at Sprüth Magers Berlin LondonSprüth Magers Berlin LondonSprüth Magers is a commerical art gallery owned by Monika Spüth and Philomene Magers, with spaces in London and Berlin, representing such artists including Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Andreas Gursky, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel...