Ruti de Vries

Selected solo exhibitions: Wormhole, Nahum Gutman Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2023); Father Earth Mother Sky, PRÁM Studio, Prague (2021); Ombre regardant le soleil, French Institute, Tel Aviv (2021); Heavy Sadness, Haamakim Gallery (2019); I saw a lot of people in the street, one of them asked me what time it was, Herzliya Artists’ Residence (2019); First Act: Evil Fluffy, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2018); Folded Fold of a Handing Hand, Schimmel Projects Art Centre, Dresden (2018); Wild Heart , Ha’Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv (2017); Battle Rehearsals, in collaboration with artist Luciana Kaplun, Dana Gallery (2017); Black Lentils, sound Installation in collaboration with musician Or Rimer, STA Gallery (2015); Everything I wanted to Tell You, Bezalel Academy of Art MFA graduate (2015)

Selected group exhibitions: More than One, the 8th Drawing Biennale, the Print Workshop, Jerusalem (2022 - scheduled); Fly on the Wall (2022), The Lobby, Tel aviv; Pareidolia, Parterre, Tel Aviv (2021); Circular Form is the Strongest, Studio Bank, Tel Aviv (2021); Your Own Point of View, in collaboration with artist Luciana Kaplun, Petach Tikva Museum of Art (2021); Money in the Pocket, Krakers - Krakow Art Week (2019); ZUMU, the Portable Museum, Arad (2018); Between Walls, Binyamin Gallery, Tel Aviv (2018); We Hereby Declare, Moby Bat Yam Museum (2017); The Return of Paper, the 6th Biennale for Drawing, Jerusalem (2016); Cut Outs, Yanko Dada Museum, Ein Hod (2015); Exposition Portage, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Beaux Arts, Paris (2014); Rising Star, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2014);

Selected awards and grants: Exhibition Grant, the Israeli Lottery Council (2019); Rabinovich Foundation Grant (2019, 2017, 2015); Residency Grant, Institut Français (2018); Young Artist Prize, Ministry of Culture (2016)

Ruti de Vries artistic endeavor cannot be summed up with a single definition. She is a sculptor, painter, collage artist, seamstress, graphic designer and animator. She represents human, hybrid and animal-like creatures using sculpture, installation, collage, sewing and drawing in an approach that oscillates between figuration and abstraction. Her realism results from reciprocal action and reaction between media, materials, cultures, traditions, inspiration sources, and influences. She probes beneath the immediate layer of the consumer culture, delving below its surface to marry it with myths, superstitions, sorcery, fashion, pop, punk, superheroes, obsessions, and clichés.

The core of her sculptural ensemble is comprised of quick, spontaneous links between raw materials and accessories bought in dollar stores to junk collected from street pavements and dragged to her studio; she dresses the space as she dresses the figures. Lack of hierarchy, ingenuity, and an ad-hoc attitude to creating art are values that form the roots of her work, those define her. It is an art fed from compulsive collecting, hoarding, and stockpiling. Art that sketches an alternative culture, undermining accepted methods but doing so without defiance, simply with the wonder and joy of this role reversal and the possibility of revitalizing street junk with new life, creating a new wealth of meanings in something grown worn, used, redundant. Portrait photo by Goni Riskin.

CV (pdf) Ruti de Vries

Ruti de Vries website ; Wormhole - text; Father Earth Mother Sky; Heavy Sadness - text; I saw a lot of people… - text; First Act: Evil Fluffy - text; Folded Fold of a Handing Hand - text; Wild Heart - text