All sculptures are titled: Sculpture of a Mystical Feeling I-VI. All watercolors are titled: Fugitive Aspect of Tenderness I-IV.
ARTIST BIO
Ruth Reese explores the richness of porcelain and black stoneware in her sculptural work. Published in "500 Plates", "500 Raku" and "Mourning: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America," Reese explores themes of mythology, death and the fluid nature of identity. Exhibiting nationally, her work has been a part of Visions in Clay, Red Heat, the Racine Art Museum in WI and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in TX. Reese holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and BA in English from Loyola University in New Orleans. Reese has also completed an Artist in Residence at Craft Alliance St. Louis, and can be found directing the Reese Gallery in St. Louis, MO. Most recently, Ruth Reese was awarded the 2016 RAC Artist Fellowship. This is her first exhibition of watercolors as an extension of her clay practice.
ARTIST STATEMENT for
SCULPTURES of a MYSTICAL FEELING
and FUGITIVE ASPECT of TENDERNESS
How do you love and yet let go? For me, this question pertains to younger versions of ourselves, to those who have passed or to things simply slipping away. As an act of love, I copy life. As an act of relinquishment - my forms de-materialize. As an act of commemoration, they look inward. The moments where the work departs from realism are moments of the spirit - of mercy, tenderness, fear and hope.
Steeped in mold making and moments of realism, this work questions a basic premise of art, and that is the goal of copying nature. When artists copy nature, it rarely lives up to nature itself. What is the artist seeking that informs the act of copying/responding to life? How can that be reached and presented in the work? Again, the moments of abstraction in relation to life most capture my imagination.
Medardo Rosso has been a powerful inspiration for this exhibition. His ability to crop sculpture, as he vacillated between abstraction and realism was revolutionary. In the midst of his erratic life, he sculpted portraits with compassion, exploring themes probably considered earnest and outmoded by contemporary mores. However, instead of alienating audiences of today, this focus on tenderness and intimacy, has viewers intrigued. Overlooked in his own time, I can't say that the lineage of his aesthetic ideas have truly been documented or even entirely mapped out. Responding to Rosso has been an entirely new path for my work.
Ruth Reese explores the richness of porcelain and black stoneware in her sculptural work. Published in "500 Plates", "500 Raku" and "Mourning: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America," Reese explores themes of mythology, death and the fluid nature of identity. Exhibiting nationally, her work has been a part of Visions in Clay, Red Heat, the Racine Art Museum in WI and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in TX. Reese holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and BA in English from Loyola University in New Orleans. Reese has also completed an Artist in Residence at Craft Alliance St. Louis, and can be found directing the Reese Gallery in St. Louis, MO. Most recently, Ruth Reese was awarded the 2016 RAC Artist Fellowship. This is her first exhibition of watercolors as an extension of her clay practice.
ARTIST STATEMENT for
SCULPTURES of a MYSTICAL FEELING
and FUGITIVE ASPECT of TENDERNESS
How do you love and yet let go? For me, this question pertains to younger versions of ourselves, to those who have passed or to things simply slipping away. As an act of love, I copy life. As an act of relinquishment - my forms de-materialize. As an act of commemoration, they look inward. The moments where the work departs from realism are moments of the spirit - of mercy, tenderness, fear and hope.
Steeped in mold making and moments of realism, this work questions a basic premise of art, and that is the goal of copying nature. When artists copy nature, it rarely lives up to nature itself. What is the artist seeking that informs the act of copying/responding to life? How can that be reached and presented in the work? Again, the moments of abstraction in relation to life most capture my imagination.
Medardo Rosso has been a powerful inspiration for this exhibition. His ability to crop sculpture, as he vacillated between abstraction and realism was revolutionary. In the midst of his erratic life, he sculpted portraits with compassion, exploring themes probably considered earnest and outmoded by contemporary mores. However, instead of alienating audiences of today, this focus on tenderness and intimacy, has viewers intrigued. Overlooked in his own time, I can't say that the lineage of his aesthetic ideas have truly been documented or even entirely mapped out. Responding to Rosso has been an entirely new path for my work.
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Artist Ruth Reese's exhibition In the Name of Medardo Rosso is at the Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery 11333 Big Bend Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63122 Parking, Directions and Map |
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