Riverbank House
Located on a narrow strip of land, sandwiched between a quiet riverbank and a residential neighborhood, the home’s unique form was inspired by the juxtaposed views offered by the surrounding environment. Standing on the riverbank you had views of the calm stream traveling to an unknown destination, unfazed by the birds, joggers and other small life form taking advantage of its natural serenity. However, a few steps down the bank, away from the river, revealed a startlingly contrasting view; homes and more homes, so grounded and monumental.

ACTS/ALPHA BLOCKER
In ACTS—short for “Absolute Contempt for Total Serenity”—Ruby captures liquid dye inside clear urethane and balances these pure prisms atop scuffed, inscribed, and spray-painted Formica bases. These works expand upon his earlier Formica sculptures such as Big Grid/DB Deth (2008), a scratched-up monolith that exudes a cold, prisonlike institutional menace. In ACTS, the juxtaposition of unfeeling laminate slabs against vibrantly pigmented urethane is a potent one; it transforms the urethane from a passive, glassy vitrine into an active agent of incarceration that suffocates the blossoming furls of dye.

XTERIORS II
In her ‘Xteriors’ series (2001 – the present), Desiree Dolron reveals her devotion to art history by giving her anonymous models a hint of a resemblance to the works of the Flemish Primitives and Johannes Vermeer. In images which, thanks to her control of light and subtle digital manipulations, hardly look like photographs at all, she produces a masterly approximation of the serenity and sense of mystery with which these painters imbued their work.more…