Frieze Viewing Room: Focus

For Frieze Viewing Room 2020, Nicelle Beauchene is pleased to present new wall and floor-based works by Ruby Sky Stiler.

Throughout her multifaceted practice, Stiler pulls references from Greco-Roman antiquity, Art Deco illustrations, and the varied dialects of twentieth-century abstraction. Her sculpture and wall based works often take shape as archaeological reconstructions; female and male nudes, parents and their children, amphorae, and mosaic patterning are all repeating motifs. Though much of the artist’s visual language is rooted in the ancient past, Stiler’s use of materials and their application is distinctly contemporary. In her ongoing series of reliefs, Stiler collages acrylic resin, glue, graphite, acrylic paint, and paper, resulting in a highly sculptural surface. She frequently repurposes past compositions within new work—in the details, you can often find Stiler’s daily notations and casual doodles—in a process that layers visual references which span centuries.

A bench anchors the six wall-based reliefs on view. This functional sculpture—featuring a reclining nude figure constructed out of stained Baltic birch—serves as the first of new work the artist is making for her forthcoming traveling museum exhibition, Group Relief, which will open at the Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, CT in September 2020. Curated by Ian Berry, the exhibition will then travel to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery in Saratoga Springs, NY.