Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Gina Ruggeri at Kevin Bruk in Miami: Abuse Your Illusion.

I fell in love with Gina Ruggeri's work during an afternoon of open studios in Queens a couple years ago. In prison terms Ruggeri makes illusion her bitch, and for a few sweet moments she lets the rest of us out of our perceptual cells. All painting is a lie so why not just blow off the doors, take it to court, and commit full-on perjury. Put me away, please.

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:

JD said...

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.

Mountain Man said...

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.

sloth said...

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.