Kathy Ruttenberg: The Earth Exhales-Ceramic Sculptures

Kathy Ruttenberg
The Earth Exhales: Ceramic Sculptures

http://www.stuxgallery.com/site/www/upcomingExhibitions

Opening Reception: Thursday, 22nd March, 6-8PM, March 22 – May 5, 2012

Working with only “earth, fire and emotions,” Kathy Ruttenberg's fairytale-like ceramic sculptures create a world that is immediately captivating, but the viewer might be surprised by what’s down the... [read more]

Kathy Ruttenberg
The Earth Exhales: Ceramic Sculptures

http://www.stuxgallery.com/site/www/upcomingExhibitions

Opening Reception: Thursday, 22nd March, 6-8PM, March 22 – May 5, 2012

Working with only “earth, fire and emotions,” Kathy Ruttenberg's fairytale-like ceramic sculptures create a world that is immediately captivating, but the viewer might be surprised by what’s down the rabbit hole.

Her first show at Stux Gallery, "The Earth Exhales", intersects in sensibility with works by artists such as Adriana Varejão, Arlene Shechet, and Kiki Smith, and may recall the theatricality of Mike Kelley, Louise Bourgeois and Mauricio Cattelan. Her violent and devastating visions are disturbingly peaceful, idyllic and sustainable. Erasing the boundary of the metaphorical and the literal, Ruttenberg’s world is filled with lush foliage, woodland creatures and puzzling, slightly grim yet open-ended reveries of gender relations. Men are always portrayed as animals in gentlemen's clothing, and women are always well-groomed and dressed in rounded skirts. On one hand, men are literally animal-like savages, but at the same time they are native creatures of the woodlands and the earth itself, whereas the female figures are the outsiders, if not intruders. It is hard to tell if they are men masquerading as animals, or vice versa. Death, in works such as “The Moment After”, is the stark aftermath of failed love, but also an opportunity to blossom imaginatively and become one with earth.

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