Profile and Parts

Press Release

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to present Profile and Parts, an exhibition of new sculptural works by Ruby Sky Stiler in the gallery's second floor project space. This show brings together a new series of geometric wall reliefs in hydrocal plaster as well as a single, open-form wood sculpture.

Incorporating cultural referents from classical bas-relief to the monochromatic assemblages of Louise Nevelson, Stiler's new plaster works construct a formal vocabulary that merges historical periods, genres, and spatial perspectives. These compositions initially grew out of a process of experimentation with scraps and fragments from previous works. While the patterns for Stiler's earlier plasters used foam core and paper, the new group incorporates wood parts, corrugated cardboard, and metal hardware salvaged from her current studio detritus. The resulting bone-white plaster casts elevate debris while relegating themselves to copies of the originals.

Also represented in the gallery is a piece from Stiler's recent series of open-form sculptures. Depicting a classical male profile rendered in skeletal wood outlines, the sculpture provides context for the formal and material evolution of the wall reliefs, which in turn inventory and document the many attempts involved in the making of these very sculptures. Though the two symbiotic processes are separate, the cumulative effect emphasizes the relationship between the transparency of the permeable sculpture and the play of light on the architectural surface of the plaster.

Ruby Sky Stiler has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; The Suburban, Oak Park, IL; and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR. She was included in significant group exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York, The Berman Museum, PA, and The Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York, among many other venues. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and her MFA from Yale University. Stiler lives and works in Brooklyn.