Hole (installation view); acrylic on Mylar; 42 x 82 inches; 2005
I like to think of Ruggeri's paintings as escapist. They often feel as though they're portals into some other place. That's not to say that it's necessarily a safer or better place. It's just other. At first there's a certain sadness and excitement in the possibility. Then maybe a bit of fear. The longer I look at these works the thin membrane between what I know and what I'm seeing doesn't quite dissolve, but it's molecular structure feels like it's shifting. A confusing and delicious thing.
Overgrowth; acrylic on Mylar; 41 x 87 inches; 2005
The perceptual assault is only half the fun here. In the end, these are beautiful and beautifully-executed paintings. Throw away the key.
Rockpath; oil on canvas; 70 x 72 inches; 2005
Click on the pics to make 'em pop.
3 comments:
I love these. I love the fading-away spatial illusions, the way they float on the wall, and the enigmatic imagery: human-inhabited natural phenomena. It's hard to see in the jpgs, but these all have flat patterns superimposed on them. Makes them even weirder, and becomes a picture plane vs. spatial illusion kind of thing. And a Decoration vs. Nature kind of thing.
I just saw these at Kevin Bruk, they are beautiful, quiet, receding...all I wished for was more space between each vortex, to get really sucked in.
They are wonderful in person - they play with notions of nature & symmetry. There are all kinds of little realizations that occur as you meditate on them.
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