ART COLLECTIVE: Art Collective On Vacation: Paul W Ruiz @ Lindberg Galleries

Visage via Lindberg Galleries

When I was down in Melbourne recently, I was determined to pay a visit to Lindberg Galleries in the city. Not only is the list of artists they represent impressive but Melbourne based figurative painter Paul W. Ruiz was currently showing. Need I say more?

It's hard to imagine it has been only six years since Ruiz's first solo exhibition. His work, not only in technique but style and expression is highly developed in its deconstruction and obsession with the human form. Ruiz melts down and obsures the form so it almost disitengrates into the background. He fractures his subject's persona making them unreadable, leaving the viewer to pick up the pieces. What remains is a ghostly impression that is simultaneously cold and radiating warmth, this arises through a progression of colour hues, the dark hues receding whilst the warm hues come forth. There seems to be an aura of vunerability to his subjects, their expressions are unreadable, but not vacant. This allows the viewer to project their own judgements onto the subjects and it is as if they are afraid of these emotional projections.

His paintings are sculptural, not only in the sense that they come out at you through identifiable human features, a protruding cheekbone or a perfectly modelled knee that just wants to enter our space but is trapped in the medium that created it. Additionally they are sculptural in the sense the viewer wants to enter their space in order to release them. This is unique to portraiture, traditionally portraits are created to distinctively represent the sitter, to portray how they would like to be seen in the eyes of others or how they are seen to the artist. However it seems Ruiz is more interested in the perceptions of others and would rather we recreate the sitters persona through our own judgements and projections.

Encuentros by Paul W Ruiz exhibited at Lindberg Galleries from the 12th of November to the 4th of December. For more information check out Lindberg Galleries

Joyeux Noël!

Stephanie