These aural explorers set out on trance-inducing envelopes of evolving sequences, while soloists set out towards the edge of the known sonic landscape, floating just above the churning collage of sound brewing below.
Brandon Kennedy
Ruby City will present Isaac Julien: Fantôme Afrique beginning May 11, 2023.
We are happy to announce we have acquired Nina Katchadourian’s BookPace series.
Purchase your very own Arturo Herrera poster/print. Herrera specially designed a limited edition screenprint for Ruby City. The center of the work features a cut-out of a camp fire, cleverly drawing reference to the location of his exhibition in the Studio Space at Ruby City on Camp Street. There are only 50 in the edition and each one has been signed by the artist on the back.
$60 each, to be picked up in person.
Isaac Julien has received the Goslar Kaiserring Award 2022 for his breaking down the barriers between different artistic disciplines by drawing from film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture and uniting them in a highly sensual visual narrative.
Ruby City is pleased to announce the acquisition of Rick Lowe’s abstract painting, Untitled (2021). This large-scale painting, whose imagery is an abstracted derivation of domino game patterns, alludes to both personal and socio-political concerns.
Ruby City is pleased to announce thirteen donations of works of art by Arturo Herrera. Generously gifted by the artist, this impressive grouping represents the longstanding, multifaceted practice of Herrera and is the result of the enduring relationship between the artist and the Linda Pace Foundation. Many of these works will be featured in a solo exhibition of the artist’s work from the collection in Spring 2022 at Ruby City.
Long-time friend Henry Estrada writes, "Alejandro [Diaz] has prioritized the inclusion and representation of lesser known or rarely validated cultural expressions, while aspiring to present such work in the appropriate context, scale, and tenor with which to best explore the human condition with all its flaws and complexity. His artwork is often tinged with humor, sometimes making self-deprecating jokes about the “seriousness” of artmaking, other times delivering biting socio-political commentary under the guise of light-hearted wit."
In September 2006, Marfa Book Company’s gallery exhibited a survey of Pace's dream drawings and one dream-inspired sculpture. Experience it for yourself here!
As we continue to celebrate her birthday month, we are happy to announce yet another gift of her work to the Linda Pace Foundation Collection at Ruby City: STAY (2006) gifted by JJ. Travis Capps Jr. and Lee Anthony.
“I wanted a place to live where I could see my art”
Linda Pace
Linda Pace is known for her contributions to contemporary art and artists. She not only built a significant collection and founded renowned residency program Artpace, she also established Ruby City an art center that fosters the presentation and understanding of innovative expression through contemporary art. Behind all these endeavors—and perhaps the reason she was so terrific at connecting with, and understanding how to best support artists—was her personal passion for making art. Recent gifts to the Linda Pace Foundation Collection at Ruby City, highlighted in this and the next bi-weekly newsletters, allow for a deeper understanding of her work and an appreciation for the depth of her commitment to aesthetic and internal contemplation.
Although academically trained as an artist, Pace’s artistic practice was not fully realized until later in life when she began to study the philosophy of Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung (b. 1875-1961) and his explorations of spirituality, the unconscious and dreams. Rosina Lee Yue and Bert Lies’ gift of Jung/Jesus (n.d.), a lithograph, demonstrates the artist’s interest in Jung. In this print Pace places the cover of Laurens van der Post’s 1975 biography of Jung next to a May 6, 2002 cover of Newsweek that provocatively asks “What would Jesus do?” The question was posed in response to allegations of sexual misconduct by American Roman Catholic priests. In pairing the two figures Pace seems to suggest that Jung, a spiritual man critical of organized religion, and his philosophy may be just the answer.
As a Jungian, Pace placed great emphasis on her dreams, and her interpretation of them, which she used as subject matter for her works. Her process involved writing down her dreams in a journal and drawing imagery from them that stood out as symbolic or meaningful. As fascinated as she was by her dreams, she was equally keen to hear viewers’ own interpretations of the images she crafted. This emphasis on dreams and their exploration gave her the confidence to speak about and share with others the work she was making.
A gift of 47 of Pace’s drawings (2003-2006), also by Yue and Lies, more fully represent the artist’s dream explorations, depicting such commonplace and extraordinary items as glasses and blue dogs. Several others, however, feature architectural elements like Yellow House Tower, currently on view at Ruby City, and Dripping Green Stairs. One of the more obvious examples of architecture and its importance for Pace is CAMPstreet, a representation of the similarly named residential building Pace developed. CAMPstreet Residences became part of her larger architectural vision that would later include Chris Park and Ruby City. By allowing her dreams to speak to her, to reveal hidden, exciting or even painful truths, Pace was able to achieve many personally fulfilling and community-oriented goals.