Ruth Shively in Solo Exhibition, Aug 13 - Sept 8
A stunning solo exhibition of new paintings by Ruth Shively will be on view at Park Row Gallery in Chatham, NY, from August 13th through September 8th, 2008. There will be a special reception with the artist on Saturday, August 16th from 4pm – 6:00pm, and the public is cordially invited to attend. This exhibition will feature over twenty new oil paintings, on paper and canvas, inspired by Ms. Shively’s fascination with the expressive manifestations she observes in people, including the many faces of childhood.
Ruth Shively grew up in Nebraska, surrounded by expansive vistas that may have encouraged her vast imagination and creative aspirations. With an emphasis in drawing and illustration early on in her career, Ms. Shively has loosened her style in recent years, from the graphic rendering of flattened forms to fluid strokes that easily express the subtle nuances of shape, color, texture, light and hope. While the artist still has a firm hold on realism, there is a daring sense of exploration in her new work, as she abstracts large areas of space and experiments with expressive modulations of smudged or dripping paint; and muted tones that all but disappear, as if exposed to too much light. The artist has a compelling manner of rendering perspective too, as seen in the deep horizons of “Tourist” and “Field Girl,” or in the dangling arms of “Falling,” as if those foreshortened arms were stretching endlessly toward a mystery, yet still hinged on the precipitous limb between childhood and adolescence.
"Sleep” “Falling” and “Tourist” are three examples of Ms. Shively’s work that might be viewed as
archetypal faces of humanity that form a modern mythology. For we can all identify with the tender vulnerability of a child immersed in the oblivion of “Sleep.” And “Tourist” is an adult face that most of us know, if one has ever stood for the first time in a new place and experienced a sense of alienation, vulnerability and joy, all tumbling together like the scumbled paint that rolls across the guileless face of this young woman standing at an airport. “Falling,” a dramatic and exuberant painting of a child leaning over the top of a wall, captures the universality of youth boldly flirting with the world, and with the limits of authority. That Ms. Shively can so vividly express such complex and contradictory emotions that touch us all is quite extraordinary, and suggests a long and successful career ahead.
Ruth Shively received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and then traveled to Europe to study art, living in Paris for a year. Ms. Shively worked as an illustrator in New York for several years, apprenticing with the distinguished illustrator Steven Guarnaccia, before she returned to her passion for the emotional expressiveness of fine art, and began painting in acrylic and oils. The artist had her first solo exhibition in 1998, in Vancouver, WA, and has exhibited in many other solo and group exhibitions in the New York region. In 2000, Ruth Shively settled in Columbia County, NY, where she lives with her husband Kevin, and two children, Emmett and Ruby.
