Sterling Ruby: CHRON (KARMA, NEW YORK)

CHRON is an approximately 500-page publication that collects over 300 collages and works on paper from a decade of Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby's (born 1972) practice. Vivid backgrounds and a variety of media compose the intricate, geometric collages and reference the artist's painting and sculptural work. Ruby's DRFTRS and EXHM series are also collected here. The latter, massive pieces of cardboard originally used as a shell for the studio floor, are painted in deep hues of primary colors and exhibit the continued accrual of urethane and studio debris, a technique the artist continues to explore today. Proclaimed "one of the most interesting artists to emerge in this century" by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, Ruby--with his graffiti-based spray paint drawings, nail-polish abstractions and inscribed Formica sculptures--has perfected a sort of anti-minimalism, here compiled in this massive new volume.