Close Encounters by Lauren Ruth

On view: May 3rd - June 2nd

Opening Reception: May 3rd, 6 - 10 pm

Tongues stick out and eyeballs surveil the room from mid-air. In Close Encounters, a playful sculptural installation at Practice Gallery, Lauren Ruth amplifies sensory organs by transforming their material and scale. Casting the viewer as a subject, Ruth reflects on the physicality of the body and the increasingly porous boundaries between the digital and material worlds. An iris may open a window to the soul, but it also observes, scans as uniquely as a fingerprint, and cements our identity.

Elsewhere, fires and floodwaters invade the gallery, a reference to the Camp Fire and floods that recently affected Ruth’s community in Chico, California. Nature revolts and the digital conquers, assaulting us on all fronts. Encircled by the elements, visitors are invited to sit and relax with a cool drink in precarious leisure. 

Ruth has an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BA from Dartmouth College. Ruth has exhibited at the Soap Factory, Minneapolis; COOP Gallery, Nashville; and the Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE, among others. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Recycled Artist in Residency, Philadelphia; Cannonball, Miami; ACRE, Chicago; Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI; and the Arteles Creative Center, Finland. In 2012, Ruth co-founded The Shaft, a pop-up elevator installation in Philadelphia’s Vox Building with Maiza Hixson. Ruth is Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the California State University, Chico, and her work may be viewed at www.lauren-ruth.com.