Ross Rudel
burgeon
March 18, 2010 April 17, 2010

Opening reception for the artist, Thursday, March 18th, 6 8 PM

Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present burgeon an exhibition of new sculpture by Los Angeles artist Ross Rudel. For this body of work Rudel has drawn upon dreams, odd personal experiences and his ongoing spiritual relationship with nature. Resurrection of the Green Man was inspired by a dream in which a man was murdered in the Mojave Desert and his corpse sprouted vegetation that transformed the landscape into a lush Eden. A chance meeting with a Yoruba Priest and a related encounter with an urban hawk led to the creation of Solicitation. A long aesthetic struggle with the strange gnarls on the surface of a log found while hiking resulted in the double-helix carving Sequence.

The materials that Rudel incorporates in his work often have personal or symbolic significance. The Green Man and related work in the exhibit were created entirely of algae from the Los Angeles River that blooms prodigiously every Spring following the purging winter floods. An antler from the Black Hills, manzaneta root burl from a spiritual center at Mt Shasta and fabric related to Rudels deceased brother were incorporated in Solicitation. The playing cards used to create Proprietary Dream Mandala had run a full cycle at the poker tables of the Silverado Casino in Deadwood, SD, which Rudel believes imbued them with significant residual energy. Humor finds its way into the Mandala, as Rudel saw this artwork in a dream at a collectors home and obsessed about plagiarizing it.

As with past work, Rudel has a fetishistic approach to detail. These objects tend to trap the viewer between the rawness of allusions and the elegance of presentation. His work speaks of solitary ritual and reverberates a disquieting presence.

Rudel has a BA from Montana State University and an MFA from UC Irvine.
His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the Museo Cantonale dArte, Lugano, Switzerland; The Panza Collection, Varese, Italy; Museo di Arte, Trento e Rovereto, Italy; Angeles Gallery, Los Angeles; and Studio la Citta, Verona, Italy. This will be Rudels fifth solo exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery.

Concurrent exhibition at the gallery, Todd Hebert: Recent Work, March 18 April 17, 2010.

Upcoming exhibitions include Lynette Yiadom Boakye - Essays and Documents and Carrie Mae Weems - Slow Fade to Black opening April 22 on view through May 22, 2010.

For more information and press photography please contact the gallery at 212.645.1701 or info@jackshainman.com

Image caption: Double Helix, 2008, wooden spiral on nightstand, 96 x 14 x 14 inches

For more info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net