Sterling Ruby

Sterling Ruby is a German-American artist born in 1972 in Bitburg, Germany.

Sterling Ruby was born to an American father and a German mother. While still young, his family left Germany to settle in the United States. Sterling grew up in Pennsylvania. When he left high school, he went to work in construction in Washington DC. Later, he returned to Pennsylvania and studied at the current Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. In 2001, he graduated from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles with a view to completing an MFA program at the Art Center College of Design. Along with his studies, he assisted art teacher Mike Kelley.

Sterling Ruby is a complete artist, known for exploring a multitude of universes and techniques. Thus he produces an astronomical quantity of collages, sculptures, videos, photographs, ceramics, paintings, flags and other montages of all kinds. The material is never a limit for the artist, whose great freedom is unparalleled. Bronze, ceramic, wood, canvas, fabric… Everything is a pretext for artistic creation.

Sterling Ruby is an unclassifiable artist. His style is unique and personal. One of the artist's influences is street art and hip-hop and punk culture. His work is brutal, sometimes violent, imposing and raw. The subjects treated by Ruby are taboo: prison, violence, masculinity, mental illnesses ... The artist plunges into the dark side of humanity, the one likely to make the viewer uncomfortable. Yet this discomfort does not take place. The topic is approached in a direct manner, without courtesy, with frankness and dedication, and is imposed in a natural way. The creations challenge and question. Sterling Ruby often works on a large scale, asserting the brutality of his style.

Sterling Ruby is a fan of exhibitions in public places. The interaction with the spectator is all the more important there, and this interaction is dear to the artist. Thus he exhibited several of his sculptures in parks, in Lisbon but also in the Netherlands.

Sterling Ruby worked in conjunction with the Raf Simons fashion house. He notably redesigned the interior of the brand's store in Tokyo and participated in the Fall / Winter 2014 men's collection.

Popular artist, he is tipped to become one of the essential artists of the 21 ^st century by the New York Times. His work is already part of larger international collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, of the Tate Modern in London, and many others ...