Ruth Root
February 7 – March 16, 2008
Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present Ruth Root’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery. Root’s work recalls the compositions of Piet Mondrian and elements of Minimalists’ formalism, while playing with contemporary modes of perception. Root draws from these art historical references, using color and shape as a means to experiment with the overall form.
Using ultra-thin aluminum sheeting, her paintings deviate from the notion of pure, deadpan abstraction, creating a new architecture of shape and color. Saturated forms merge into edges that do not necessarily demarcate a boundary, rather a passage into another space. Root’s work are often exhibited flush to the gallery wall, evoking the effect of looking at a computer screen, a reference all too evident in contemporary culture’s fetishization with digitized media. One immediately becomes drawn into Root’s architectural space.
Although Root’s paintings are primarily concerned with the tautology of painting itself, her color assemblages are often influenced by the urban experience. The juxtaposition of bold industrial colors and amorphous shapes initiate a dialogue between the past and the present while condensing the illusions of solidity and space into intangible fields of color.
Ruth Root has shown at the Albright Knox Museum, PS1 and the Seattle Art Museum. She has had solo exhibitions with Maureen Paley, London, Galeria Marta Cervera, Madrid, and Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska, Salzburg. Root will be exhibiting in March at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin and Gallery MinMin, Japan.