Ruby Sky Stiler: Blue Studio
March 10th - April 22nd, 2023-
Ruby Sky Stiler: Blue Studio, Installation View. Photography by Greg Carideo
Nina Johnson is pleased to present Blue Studio, a solo exhibition of new works by artist Ruby Sky Stiler. Opening March 10th in the Upstairs Gallery, the exhibition explores various material processes, themes, and iconography central to the artist’s interest and practice.
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Ruby Sky Stiler, Woman in Green, 2023, Acrylic paint, acrylic resin, paper, glue, and graphite on panel, 32 x 25 in.
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Ruby Sky Stiler: Blue Studio, Installation View. Photography by Greg Carideo
With influences ranging from the deeply personal to the art historical, Stiler’s work combines source iconography drawn from multiple periods of history and place; from Greco-Roman sculpture, to art deco illustrations, textile patterns, to iPhone photographs, and fauvism to her own imagination. The surfaces in her work often incorporate contemporary materials including acrylic paint, paper, resin, and wood, and refer to ancient mediums such as marble, terracotta, and steel. Stiler’s deliberate material choice and expression create a sense of fluctuation between the future, the past, and the space between.
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Ruby Sky Stiler, Women in Gold, 2023, Acrylic paint, acrylic resin, paper, glue, and graphite on panel, 44 x 34 in.
Blue Studio presents a body of new and interconnected works consisting of eight paintings and three sculptures. Referencing Red Studio and Blue Nude, both iconic paintings by Henri Matisse, the exhibition title alludes to the saturation of daily life in paintings, as well as the empowerment of the muse figure.
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Ruby Sky Stiler, Blue Artist, 2023, Acrylic paint, acrylic resin, paper, glue, and graphite on panel, 50 x 44 in.
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Ruby Sky Stiler: Blue Studio, Installation View. Photography by Greg Carideo
Stiler’s new works continue her reflection on the subject of fatherhood, as well as the discrepancies of depictions of men displaying emotional intimacy or being defined by their relationship to children compared to the canon of “mother and child” in an art historical context. Paintings in the exhibition feature fathers with their children, and female figures unmoored from domestic identities: a woman painting, a woman reading, a woman with a cat.
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Ruby Sky Stiler, Standing Artist, 2023, Baltic birch plywood, paint, and hardware, 50 x 33 x 12.5 in.
“I’m often exploring and updating established archetypes. For example, the historical trope of the portrait in the mirror is a common self-aggrandising gesture for a male painter,” said Ruby Sky Stiler. “In my recent work, including the works in Blue Studio, I’ve placed the female figure—often the object—in that empowered position.”
Blue Studio is on view through April 22, 2023.
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Ruby Sky Stiler, Cat Sitter in Blue, 2023, Acrylic paint, acrylic resin, paper, glue, and graphite on panel, 44 x 34 in.
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Ruby Sky Stiler: Blue Studio, Installation View. Photography by Greg Carideo
Ruby Sky Stiler was born in 1979 in Portland, Maine, and lives and works in New York City. Stiler has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, CT; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Saint-Gaudens Memorial Park, Cornish, NH; The Suburban, Oak Park, IL; and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR. She has been included in group exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; The Berman Museum, PA; The Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, NY; Providence College Galleries, Providence, RI, among many others. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and her MFA from Yale University. Work by Stiler can be found in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY; RISD Museum, RI; Fairfield University Art Museum, CT; and the Tang Teaching Museum, NY. The artist’s first mid-career monograph will be published in Spring 2023.