Curated by Alex Gartenfeld and Eva Respini
This fall’s hottest collab is Sterling Ruby’s first comprehensive museum survey, co-organized by ICA Boston and ICA Miami. The exhibition—which includes more than fifty paintings, collages, ceramics, and large-scale sculptures spanning 2003 to the present—highlights the range of his material experimentation. In the accompanying catalogue, essays by curators Alex Gartenfeld and Eva Respini and, in particular, an interview with the artist by critic and Texte zur Kunst editor Isabelle Graw grapple with the implications of Ruby’s ever-expanding studio: from site of self-excavation to headquarters for forays into retail design and high-fashion clothing projects. The retrospective isolates Ruby’s greatest hits while eliding the more slippery ventures—such as his videos and experiments in streetwear—that walk the line between critique as practice and critique as (mere?) aesthetic. Travels to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, February 26–May 26, 2020.
