Eye of the Quake, 2019. Acrylic on hand-marbled silk. 48h x 36w in.
Pussy Drug Flowers, 2019. Acrylic on hand-marbled silk. 24h x 18w in.
Make-up Sext, 2019. Acrylic on hand-marbled silk. 24h x 18w in.
Rug Orgy, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper. 11h x 17w in.
Rug Orgy, detail
Underwater Flood, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper, 11h x 17w in.
Mid Drip, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper, 11h x 17w in.
Death Dance of the Geminated Universe, 2019. Ink and acrylic on hand-marbled paper, 11h x 17w in.
Dipper, 2019. Ink and acrylic on hand-marbled paper, 11h x 17w in.
Dipper, detail
Idle Mind is a Playground for the Devil, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper. 11h x 17w in.
Idle Mind is a Playground for the Devil, detail
The Wringer, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper. 11h x 17w in.
Union, 2019. Ink on hand-marbled paper. 11h x 17w in.
Night War, 2019. Ink and acrylic on hand-marbled paper. 11h x 17w in.
Draw Him to Death, 2019. 110 individual drawings, ink on paper. 137 1/2h x 90w in.
American Girl ™, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
My Little Pony, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Lindsey + Ashley + Stacy, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
To the Extent that it Matters, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
IRS, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
IBS, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
End Times, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
The Ceremony, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
That Woman, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Be the Light, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Be the Bitch, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Plain Seltzer, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Mitchy, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Zack Morris, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Couture, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Adonis, 2019. Ink on paper. 9w x 12h in.
Draw Him to Death: 110 drawings of senator Lindsey Graham. Risograph, perfect bound, 110 pages + covers, 6 7/8h x 5w in.
Press release:
The high-femme drama of a sad unfurling scroll penetrating a gorgeous rug, gushing together into crisscrossed waves. A dripping jug of melting roses. An underwater flood.
Ruby T is a drawer who is fueled by anger, desire, and magic. Her drawings and marbled silk paintings in Underwater Flood are translations of political and sexual desire. Within oppressive social conditions, language circumscribes both forms of yearning, collapsing them into each other as they flow toward the limits of fantasy. This show, her first at Western Exhibitions, juxtaposes ecstatic drawings of water with dozens of satirical cartoons depicting U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham.
Ruby’s drawing practice is equal parts performative and devotional. For the past few years, she has been preoccupied with drawing moving water —particularly the impossible act of representing it— landing recently on the process of marbling, which essentially is a print of the surface of water.
She writes, “All of my work is rooted in drawing and has been for years. I am on a quest to realize the conceptual potential of cartooning and protest art. Drawing water imagery on marbled patterns forces a power struggle between the fiction of my lines and the physical trace of water. Sometimes I dominate and sometimes I submit; multiple planes emerge, and I become trapped in the trifecta of reality, representation, and caricature.”
Her cartoons of Lindsey Graham are part of an ongoing experiment in which she draws the opportunistic misogynist over and over again from the same grimacing photo while listening to him speak. She asks, “If caricature is drawing at its most violent, can the ritualistic repetition of drawing this asshole accelerate his destruction?” Her fascination with Graham is just one in a string of obsessions with the political and corporate elite and their bullshit.
This program partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Full audio description of individual works gladly available upon request.