ESTHER RUIZ – UNTITLED ART FAIR

Interview with Esther Ruiz at Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach, 2024.

Esther Ruiz is New York based artist that creates wall based and free standing sculptures – all charged by unlikely mixed materials. Ruiz’s works could have been excavated from a cave or made in a workshop, they live a life of both commodity and artifact. Mirrored surfaces act as portals of discovery, where to, is up to the viewer. This year she is showing with CHART Gallery at the Untitled Art Fair in Miami, now in it’s twelfth year, located right on Miami beach. The environment is fitting for Ruiz’s work – slick and glossy tempered by natural moments that cut through the clinical. New York’s Chart gallery is hosting Ruiz’s work alongside a group presentation of four other artists. Many of Ruiz’s pieces that are on view are hand carved wooden wall works with inserts of additional materials like neon and stone. You can see this work on view at Untitled, 1200 Ocean Drive, on Miami beach December 4-8, 2024.

Interview between Amy Boone-McCreesh and Esther Ruiz

A: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE UNDERLYING THEMES AND IDEAS IN THE ARTWORK YOU ARE MAKING NOW?

E: I’m interested in materials that tell time or stories, and by combining a few, I tell new tales. I’m also interested in the similarities between seemingly disparate realms: our inner landscape, our immediate worlds and the unknown, then I like to reflect these realms back onto themselves, literally and figuratively. 

A: YOUR MOST RECENT WORK SEEMS TO INCLUDE A DELIGHTFULLY JARRING MIX OF ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL MATERIALS, HOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT OR HANDLE MATERIALS?

E:  I’m drawn to objects that tell time or stories; from holistic metaphysical supply stores and science museum gift shops to found materials I find on walks. Sometimes I hold on to materials for years before I use them and other times I seek out specific fossils. I’m very particular about the shape and colors of the materials I use and less about their metaphysical properties.

A: CAN YOU TALK SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE PIECES YOU HAVE ON VIEW IN MIAMI? WERE THERE ANY SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN MAKING THIS WORK IN TERMS OF HOW IT WOULD BE SHOWN, HOW IT WOULD TRAVEL ETC?

E: I’ve developed several methods of working over the years and the suite at Untitled is a great introduction to my work. I’m showing a selection from three different bodies of work: Beacons, Tablets and Wells. I made a few new smaller wall works for the fair so we could show a broad range.

A: WHERE CAN EVERYONE SEE YOUR WORK DURING MIAMI ART WEEK?

E: Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach with Chart, booth C11. 

A: YOUR WORK, THROUGH REPETITION OR SCALE, CAN REALLY DEFINE A SPACE – IS THERE A CONTEXT OR PLACE YOU CONSIDER TO BE IDEAL FOR YOUR WORK TO BE ON DISPLAY?

E: I love how the work changes based on its placement in different settings, especially in an architecturally interesting space. I’ve shown my work in various places including churches, schools, music venues and galleries and I have to say I love seeing them installed together in a white cube or an empty warehouse. I like to see the different bodies of work in a room together, the colored mirrors reflect and distort the neon, creating an ambient setting for weird things to develop. 

A: DO YOU HAVE ANY ART WEEK SUGGESTIONS OR TIPS FOR SURVIVING ART FAIRS? ANYTHING ON VIEW YOU’D LIKE TO SEE?

E: I stock up on good coffee, healthy snacks and ginger shots in the hotel/airbnb. Going to the beach or pool at least once and walking barefoot in grass somewhere. 

I always try to see it all but have to tell myself it’s impossible, so I try to be present and hang with friends and hit the big three, Art Basel, Untitled and NADA. Always nice to visit the local galleries too. 

A: ANYTHING ELSE COMING UP THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PROMOTE?

E: I’m currently in a group show called Into The Light at Peninsula in New York, through December 20th.  And next year I’m in a group show at Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York opening January 10th and another group show curated by Wendy White at County Gallery in Palm Beach opening February 8th.  Then I’ll have work at Zona Maco in Mexico City February 5-9th!