Esther Ruiz

“Conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves: and that therefore Mendeleev's Periodic Table, which just during those weeks we were learning to unravel, was poetry.”

—Primo Levi, The Periodic Table

Chart is pleased to present our seventh projection exhibition, Partial Light Index, a solo presentation of new sculptures by Brooklyn-based artist Esther Ruiz. Building on her practice of combining Minimalist forms and materials with colorful palettes and outer space-inspired fictionalizations, these newest works offer a deeper look into Ruiz’s rigorous investigations into the natural elements that make up our world and how alien at times those basic compounds can seem.

Arrayed around the gallery are a number of small, amoebic-shaped wall works, “Beacons”, as Ruiz refers to them. Hand-carved from poplar, pine, and basswood, their richly-grained and smooth organic shapes contrast the artworks’ simultaneous mechanization. Inset with glittering gems such as labradorite or rainbow titanium quartz, each Beacon also bears its electronic apparatuses, with wirings and circuits winking in plain view, heightening the sense of their utilitarian function.

Despite the seeming inscrutable origins of her sculptures, Ruiz doesn’t hesitate to show her work, as evidenced by the diagrams and schematic studies on view throughout the exhibition. While ostensibly empirical, satisfying explanations remain at arms’ length. Even the largest work, “Codex”, whose title offers a guide of some kind, only hints at the corresponding relationships between its kaleidoscopic squiggles of neon and the lustrous and textured minerals inset beneath each bulb.

By creating material manifestations of something emotional or imagined, Ruiz has created a suite of irresistible curios. Stimulating our insatiable desire for comprehension, the artist is content to let us revel in not-knowing, instead letting imagination fill in for meaning.

Esther Ruiz (b. 1986, Houston, TX) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist received a BA in Studio Art from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee in 2011. She was a recipient of the 2016 Artist Grant and Williamsburg Studio Lottery from SpaceWorks and the 2014 ArtBridge Urban Modulations Public Art Installation and Award. Ruiz has exhibited in New York at Carvalho Park, Chart yours mine & ours gallery, New Release Gallery, Regina Rex, Field Projects, Planthouse Gallery, Urban Glass, and Brooklyn Academy of Music, among other national exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA), Cross MacKenzie Gallery (Washington, D.C.), Platform (Baltimore, MD), Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), and the American Center for Physics (College Park, MD). Her work has been reviewed in publications including The Washington Post, Art News, Vice, The Wall Street Journal, The American Ceramic Society, Hyperallergic, The New York Times, and on National Public Radio (NPR).