Multiple Peaks, 80 x 80 inches, Watercolor on canvas, 2009. Conrad Ruiz's first solo show features large-scale watercolor paintings inspired by the epic scope of Hollywood cinema and history painting. Drawing from Gericault and Delacroix, as well as James Cameron, Ruiz’s expansive canvases unfold as kinetic and often explosive compositions, which capture moments of collective euphoria. Through these fantastical, excessive and bizarre tableaux Ruiz explores the ever-changing permutations of class, masculinity and race as they circulate through the popular lexicons that shape our collective imaginary. At once whimsical and formally rigorous, his work unfolds as a visual historiography, which traces the processes through which the contemporary becomes codified as the historical.
3 comments:
Say what?
It's a collage (lol).
Well the 'watercolor' is the background, which gives the emphasis or 'surround sound.'
Can't 'hear it?'
Reminds me of water polo, too!
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