KRIS RUHS

1952 – Born in New York City to parents of German extraction.
1972 -1975. Attends the School of Visual Arts, New York City.
1972 -1996. Studio in New York.
1996 – Present. Studios in Milan and Paris.

While attending the School of Visual Arts, Ruhs begins his explorations as an artist in New York City in the Seventies – when visually there is a movement to bring back the basics of creation in various media and expose the process of creation in action as much as the results of finished works. In these years Ruhs quickly moves beyond paper and paint as a medium for expression.

He begins his first series of sculptures inspired by the wood discarded in the streets next to
his studio on lower Broadway. Discards of various shapes and sizes become favored materials for him. Old wood is cut, scraped, carved, painted over and burned to give a new surface and shape that carries a deep, metaphorical weight. While still wood, and recognized, we see the passage of time reflected in these new processes that the wooden “Boxes” have undergone. These initial “Boxes” of the Eighties will go on to create the template of future work and the artist’s relationship to other materials.