Ruth Ige
Ruth Ige | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1992 (age 32–33) |
| Education | Auckland University of Technology |
| Known for | painting |
Ruth Ige (born 1992) is a Nigerian-born painter based in Auckland, New Zealand.[1] Her work was part of the major group exhibition Aotearoa Contemporary at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 2024.[2] She has been part of multiple solo and group exhibitions, notably participating in several international exhibitions.
Background
[edit]Ige is of Yoruba descent on her father's side and Igbo descent on her mother's side.[3] In 2016, she graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Auckland University of Technology.[4][5] One year after graduating, in 2017 she participated in her first group exhibition at Artspace in Auckland.
Art
[edit]Ige draws on the dramatic, regal and elegant Nigerian fashion as her main inspiration for her painting, noting that precolonial and present-day Nigerian clothing is a work of art in itself.[3] She also notes it is important for her to display African culture through a contemporary lens, exhibiting the traditional, contemporary, and futuristic aspects in her works.[3] As such, her works, while rooted in history and the present, also explore future imaginings.[5] The figures often existent in her paintings interchangeably shift between history and fiction, familiar and fantastical, recognisable and otherworldly.[5] As such, Ige aims for her works to be difficult to stereotype due to their abstract, mysterious qualities, creating narratives within her paintings that are enigmatic and unexpected.[6] She describes her works as a love letter to the black diaspora, her paintings being a tool of healing, escape, resistance and empowerment.[7]
Typically, Ige uses thick, gestural brushstrokes of blue, black, and white to create compositions that present figures void of features.[8] In an interview with the Art Paper magazine, Ige explained that she has a deep love of blue, and by using it as her main colour, the viewer can become more immersed in the space.[3] She also connects with the cultural significance of blue, which has been a colour to carry language and symbolise legacy, dignity and protection, which therefore envelopes the figures in her works, protecting them.[3]
Exhibition history
[edit]| Year | Exhibition | Location | Solo or Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Aotearoa Contemporary | Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland | Group |
| 2024 | And you are of the heavens of the earth | Stevenson, Cape Town | Solo |
| 2024 | Summer Paintings | Gow Langsford, Auckland | Group |
| 2022 | Between Two Dimensions | Robert Projects, Los Angeles | Solo |
| 2021 | The poetic notions of blue | McLeavey Gallery, Wellington | Solo |
| 2021 | My Whole Body Changed into Something Else | Stevenson, Cape Town | Group |
| 2020 | A Place Apart | City Gallery, Wellington | Duo |
| 2020 | Three Painters | McLeavey Gallery, Wellington | Group |
| 2019 | Group Show | Karma, New York | Group |
| 2019 | Two Oceans at Once | ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland | Group |
| 2019 | Pleiades: Seven Sisters of New Zealand | Gow Langsford, Auckland | Group |
| 2019 | On the Verge of Blue | SPA_CE, Napier | Group |
| 2018 | The Silence Before the Morning | Weasel Gallery, Hamilton | Solo |
| 2018 | Never an Answer: 12 Abstract Painters | The Vivian, Matakana | Group |
| 2018 | LISTE Art Fair Basel | Switzerland | Group |
| 2017 | Dirt Future | Artspace, Auckland | Group |
References
[edit]- ^ eloise (2020-11-24). "RUTH IGE | Aotearoa Art Fair". Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Aotearoa Contemporary". Auckland Art Gallery. 2024-07-06. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ a b c d e "Meet Ruth Ige". The Art Paper. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ eloise (2020-11-24). "RUTH IGE | Aotearoa Art Fair". Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ a b c d "Melanie Roger Gallery: Ruth Ige". melanierogergallery.com. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Ruth Ige". SPA_CE. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ STEVENSON. "STEVENSON". STEVENSON. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Artist Ruth Ige Gives Freedom the Capacity to Dream in Paint". www.culturedmag.com. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Ruth Ige". SPA_CE. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Ruth Ige, The Astronomer, 2021". Gow Langsford. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ "Ruth Ige CV" (PDF). BODE. Retrieved January 8, 2025.