Hall of Exits
Esther Ruiz
April 15th - May 22nd 2022
Monaco
2701 Cherokee Street
St. Louis, MO 63118
Monaco is pleased to present Hall of Exits, a solo exhibition by Esther Ruiz, in the Project Space. Join us for an opening reception Friday, April 15th from 6-9pm. The exhibition will run through May 22nd, 2022, with viewings available on Saturdays from 12-4pm and by appointment.
Organized by Monaco Member Nick Schleicher.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Since beginning her Wells series in 2014, Ruiz has dreamt of arranging the works in a hallway. In the Project Space of Monaco, Ruiz positions the mirrored surfaces of the plexiglass forms to occupy opposing walls, forming a Hall of Exits. The Wells reflect into one another ad infinitum as the viewer navigates a narrow passage illuminated by neon. Relying on the symmetrical orientation of the ambiguous forms, Ruiz elicits the experience of two foreign bodies communing across a divide. In their inception, Ruiz designed the Wells around the tenants of minimalism - the formalism acts as a tool for divination - as the works invoke a portal or wormhole to a fictionalized landscape imagined by the artist. Though, with the events of the past few years, Ruiz believes the potency of the Wells now lies in its ability to reflect the ever-changing environment, both real and imagined, to which the works bear witness and purvey. The convocation of mirrored surfaces - blank shapes endlessly echoing back and forth to one another - encapsulate and depict the fantastical resounding energy of an indescribable, ephemeral, ethereal realm.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ruiz creates objects that operate simultaneously as miniature landscapes from a distant future and actual size sculptures informed by the family of Minimalism. The cylinder, the semicircle, the triangle, and other Euclidean forms are combined into colorful and expressive freestanding sculpture. Ruiz uses the minimalist vocabulary to create relics of imagined experiences. Of her creative process, she says: “The imagery I work with is born out of exploring and researching fictional places imagined in my mind...and ultimately, my work exists as an effort to visually explain an emotional state of mind with mathematical acuteness, hence the paired down materials and forms.” She begins with a collection of emotions, memories, impressions of light, and sounds, then translates them into an abstract geometric aesthetic. The newer works, shifting away from the cylindrical forms, but still adhering to a strict material diet, act as objects from these landscapes. Some act as tomes, containing foreign information; others as stand-ins for familiar domestic objects but with fundamental idiosyncrasies. Her series of Wells, began in 2014 as wormholes or portals to these worlds. The reflective material invites the viewer to join this fantastical world. But by also warping the viewer and their surroundings, the Wells, placed slightly above eye level, induce one to look beyond or through their current place and to imagine their own fictional world.
BIO
Esther Ruiz (b. 1986 Houston) received a bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Rhodes College in 2011 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Selected solo exhibitions include The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon, Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, yours mine & ours in New York, New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Platform Baltimore. Selected group exhibitions include Ladies’ Room LA, Torrance Art Museum, NADA Gallery, Deslave, LVL3, New Release Gallery, and Hollis Taggart. She has been featured in The Washington Post, Art News Magazine, Art F City and VICE. She was also a visiting lecturer at School of Visual Arts, New York, New York, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Santa Barbara City College among others.
For all inquiries and appointments please contact:
Nick Schleicher nickschleicherart@gmail.com or Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us