Sterling Ruby at ICA Miami

Organised by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA/Boston) and Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) the exhibition is the first museum survey of Dutch-American artist Sterling Ruby.
Curated by ICA Miami Artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld and ICA/Boston Barbara Lee Chief Curator Eva Respini, the show presents over 75 works spanning over two decades of the artist’s career, a testament of the rapid evolution of American culture, institutions, and labor.

Investigating the role of the artist as outsider, Ruby criticises the structures of modernism and traditional institutions, addressing the repressed underpinnings of American culture and the coding of power and violence. Craft is central to his inquiry, as he explores traditions from Amish quilt-making to California’s radical ceramics tradition, shaped by his upbringing in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Organised loosely by chronology and medium, Sterling Ruby considers the artist’s explorations of these themes across the many materials and forms he has utilised throughout his practice, including many innovations.