Sterling Ruby: MOCA Focus

Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby, who was born in Germany in 1972, has created an expansive body of collage, video and sculpture using such diffuse materials as fingernail polish, clay and spray paint to tackle received notions of taste and cultural stereotypes. Critic Linda Yablonsky has stated, "His art is too weird, and too fierce, to dismiss." Ruby seems to answer in his letterpress print that reads, "FINISH ARCHITECTURE, KILL MINIMALISM, LONG LIVE THE AMORPHOUS LAW." Though monumental in scale, Ruby's often materially transient work is bolstered by his transgressive language and gestures. This volume is the eighth installment in The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles' initiative to showcase the work of emerging artists in Southern California. Organized by MOCA Curator Philipp Kaiser, it is published concurrently with Ruby's first solo museum exhibition.