Sterling Ruby

The work of German-born artist Sterling Ruby shifts from one medium to another yet the social themes he deals with stay consistent throughout. Ruby’s work often deals with topics related to the violence and pressures found in society, art history and even his own life. His work is also deeply influenced by underground urban groups such as graffiti and punk. Ruby’s work is often exhibited in the form of large and intricate installations. New York Times critic Roberta Smith proclaimed Ruby as one of the most interesting artists to emerge in the twentieth century.

Past exhibitions

Biography

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021
  • Sterling Ruby: Future Present, Gagosian Gallery, Rome, Rome, Italy
  • Sterling Ruby: That My Nails Can Reach Unto Thine Eyes, Gagosian Gallery, Athens, Athens, Greece
  • Sterling Ruby: Ceramics, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
2020
  • Sterling Ruby: A Relief Lashed + A Still Pose, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (Van Eyck), Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2019
  • Sterling Ruby, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Little Haiti, Miami, Florida, USA
  • Sterling Ruby: ACTS + Table, Gagosian Gallery, London (Britannia Street), London, UK
  • Sterling Ruby: Damnation, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Sterling Ruby: Sculpture, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
2018
  • Sterling Ruby: Ceramics, MAD, Museum of Arts and Design, Midtown, New York, USA
  • Sterling Ruby: WIDW, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (St-Georges), Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: DRFTRS, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (Rivoli), Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: Hearts & Clubs, Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: Ceramics, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
  • Sterling Ruby, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2017
  • Sterling Ruby: Mix Piz, Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
  • Sterling Ruby, Gagosian Gallery, New York (980 Madison Avenue), Upper East Side, New York, USA
2016
  • Sterling Ruby: The Jungle, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Sterling Ruby, Lower Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
  • Sterling Ruby: Work Wear: Garment and Textile Archive 2008 – 2016, Sprüth Magers, London, Mayfair, London, UK
2015
  • Sterling Ruby, Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
  • Sterling Ruby, Gagosian Gallery, Le Bourget, Paris, France
  • Sterling Ruby: ECLPSE, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (St-Georges), Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: SCALES, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (Rivoli), Brussels, Belgium
2014
  • Sterling Ruby: Vivids, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Sterling Ruby: “BC RIPS”, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Sterling Ruby: SUNRISE SUNSET, Hauser & Wirth, New York, 18th Street, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Sterling Ruby, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
2013
  • Sterling Ruby, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: EXHM, Hauser & Wirth, London, Mayfair, London, UK
2012
  • Sterling Ruby, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2011
  • Sterling Ruby: Vampire, Pace Beijing, Beijing, China
  • Sterling Ruby: I Am Not Free Because I Can be Exploded Anytime, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2010
  • Sterling Ruby, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (St-Georges), Brussels, Belgium
  • Sterling Ruby: 2TRAPS, Pace New York (508 West 25th Street), Chelsea, New York, USA
2008
  • Sterling Ruby: GRID RIPPER, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAMeC), Bergamo, Italy
  • STERLING RUBY ZEN RIPPER, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, Italy
  • Moca Focus: Sterling Ruby, Supermax 2008, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • Sterling Ruby, Chron, The Drawing Center, Soho, New York, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
  • Yakimono, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Cracked, Tristan Hoare, London, UK
  • Clay Pop, Jeffrey Deitch, New York (Wooster Str), Soho, New York, USA
  • Subtle Opulence, Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, Palm Desert, California, USA
  • In the Meanwhile…Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Part II, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA
  • Hong Kong Exchange, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Eight Works From 2013, 2020, 2009, 1998, 2019, 2003, 2018, 1998, Wschód, Warsaw, Poland
2020
  • Sterling Ruby & Masaomi Yasunaga, Nonaka-Hill, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Majeure Force. Part Two, Night Gallery, Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • ONLINE: Broadcast: Alternate Meanings in Film and Video: Chapter Three, Gagosian Gallery, New York, New York, USA
  • Group Exhibition, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Majeure Force, Night Gallery, Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Collective Care: A House With Many Guests, M WOODS, Chaoyang, Beijing, China
  • Recent Acquisitions Of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA
  • American Pastoral, Gagosian Gallery, London (Britannia Street), London, UK
2019
  • Opulent Minimalism, Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, Palm Desert, California, USA
  • Matt Black X Gana Art: Reflections, Gana Art Center, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea
  • Taka Ishii Gallery 25th Anniversary Group Exhibition: Survived!, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • An Exhibition for Notre-Dame, Gagosian Gallery, Paris (rue de Ponthieu), 8e, Paris, France
  • Abstraction: Aspects of Contemporary Art, National Museum of Art, Osaka (Kokuritsu Kokusai Bijutsukan), Osaka, Japan
  • A Collection in Progress. Nature is what we see, Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, Lugano, Switzerland
  • Gold Standard: Ten Year Anniversary Exhibition, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
2018
  • Marginal Editions / Ten Marginal Years, Foxy Production, Lower East Side, New York, USA
  • Tables, Carpets & Dead Flowers, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Fire and Clay, Gagosian Gallery, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Present Tense: Selections from the Lenhardt Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
  • Playlist, Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • Group Exhibition, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Close at Hand: A Sculpture Survey, Gagosian Gallery, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
2017
  • LA Invitational, Gagosian Gallery, New York (555 W 24th Str), Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Grinding, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Group Exhibition, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (complex665), Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Steps to Aeration, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Discomposure, Richard Telles Fine Art, Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • 99 Cents or Less, MOCAD, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, USA
  • Selections from the Permanent Collection: Catherine Opie and Sterling Ruby, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Build: Sculptural Ceramics, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
  • Concrete Island, Venus Over Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • The Age of Ambiguity: Abstract Figuration / Figurative Abstraction, Vito Schnabel Gallery, St. Moritz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2016
  • L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists, LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • THE PUBLIC BODY .01, Artspace, Sydney, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, Australia
  • Omul Negru, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Piston Head II: Artists Engage the Automobile, Venus Over Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Milk of the Poppy, Capital, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Group Show, Galerie Christophe Gaillard, 3e, Paris, France
  • Omul Negru, Nicodim Gallery, Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
  • La mia ceramica, Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris, 4e, Paris, France
  • LEXICON, Gagosian Gallery, Paris (rue de Ponthieu), 8e, Paris, France
  • A Whisper of Where It Came From, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
  • ILLUMINATION: New contemporary art at Louisiana, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
  • Nice Weather, Skarstedt Gallery, New York, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Material Considerations, Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
2015
  • The World is Made of Stories, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
  • You’ve Got To Know The Rules… To Break Them, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, Florida, USA
  • The Shape of Time, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • The Milky Way 2, Studio Sales di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome, Italy
  • Beverly Hills 20-Year Anniversary Invitational Exhibition, 1995–2015, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Benefit Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Losing the Compass, White Cube, London (Mason’s Yard), St. James’s, London, UK
  • Surface Tension, The FLAG Art Foundation, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • AMERICANAESOTERICA, SARIEV Contemporary, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
  • Theories on Forgetting, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Sprayed: Works from 1929-2015, Gagosian Gallery, London (Britannia Street), London, UK
  • Z-ING, Richard Telles Fine Art, Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Pretty Raw: After And Around Helen Frankenthaler, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
  • Chromophobia, Gagosian Gallery, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Matters of Pattern, Skarstedt Gallery, New York (Chelsea), Chelsea, New York, USA
  • EAGLES II, Marlborough, New York, Chelsea, New York, USA
2014
  • Beneath The Surface, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, Florida, USA
  • FIRE!, Venus Over Manhattan, Upper East Side, New York, USA
  • Variations: Conversations in and Around Abstract Painting, LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Love Story: Anne and Wolfgang Titze Collection, Lower Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
  • Whitney Biennial 2014, Whitney Museum of American Art, Greenwich Village, New York, USA
2013
  • Mo­ni­ca Bon­vici­ni & Ster­ling Ru­by, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • Island, The Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado, USA
  • Why Not Live for Art? II, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • Parcours, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • Transforming the Known, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
  • The Gesture and the Sign, White Cube, São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • Beg Borrow and Steal, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, USA
  • Beg Borrow and Steal, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, USA
  • Black Cake, Team Gallery, Grand Street, Soho, New York, USA
2012
  • Sphères 2012, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel, France
  • Mash-Up: collage from 1930 to the present, L & M Arts, Los Angeles, Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol, MOCA Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
2011
  • AMERICAN EXUBERANCE, Rubell Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
  • Structure  &  Absence, White Cube, London (Bermondsey Street), London, UK
  • Structure  &  Absence, White Cube, London (Bermondsey Street), London, UK
  • Soft Machines, Pace New York (508 West 25th Street), Chelsea, New York, USA
  • George Herms: Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown), MOCA Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Silence and Time, DMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Arts District, Dallas, Texas, USA
  • The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
  • After Hours: Murals on the Bowery, New Museum, New York, Lower East Side, New York, USA
  • New York Minute, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
  • Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s, Telfair Museums, Telfair Academy, Savannah, Georgia, USA
2010
  • Group Exhibition, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (St-Georges), Brussels, Belgium
  • Rive Gauche / Rive Droite, Marc Jancou Contemporary, New York, 57th Street, New York, USA
  • California Dreamin’, Portugal Arte, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Spray!, D’Amelio Terras, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Carol Bove, Sterling Ruby, Dana Schutz, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Permanent Mimesis: An Exhibition about Realism and Simulation, GAM, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Turin, Torino, Italy
  • Rethinking Location: Anytime, Anywhere, Everything, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Melanie Schiff and Sterling Ruby, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas, USA
2009
  • Sterling Ruby & Robert Mapplethorpe, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (St-Georges), Brussels, Belgium
  • New Photography 2009, MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, Midtown, New York, USA
  • Works On View, Jack Shainman Gallery, 20th Street, Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Cris Brodahl, Brian Calvin, Anne Collier, Brian Fahlstrom, Jason Meadows, Carter Mull, Sterling Ruby, Mateo Tannatt, Marc Foxx Gallery, West Beverly, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Your Gold Teeth II, Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY Chelsea (509 W), Chelsea, New York, USA
  • Abstract America: New Painting And Sculpture, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
  • On From Here, Guild & Greyshkul, Soho, New York, USA
2008
  • Begin Again Right Back Here, White Columns, Greenwich Village, New York, USA
  • Four new exhibitions + projects, White Columns, Greenwich Village, New York, USA
2007
  • Fearful Objects, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago (Washington Blvd), West Loop, Chicago, Illinois, USA

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