Ruby Osorio, Detained En Route by Moments of Human frailty, 2006, Ink, gouache and thread on paper, 45.5 x 75". |
Ruby Osorio Explores the Mythology of the Ambiguous Trickster |
Ruby Osorio, Offshore, 2007, Gouache and ink on paper, framed, 44-1/2 x 74-1/2".
Ruby Osorio, The Troublesome Bouquet, 2007, Gouache, ink, and thread on paper, 45 x 45".
Ruby Osorio, One For The Other, 2006, Ink, gouache, colored pencil and thread on paper, 45 x 45".
Ruby Osorio, Kilter, 2007, Gouache, ink and thread on paper, framed, 45 x 45-1/2". |
Cherry and Martin Ruby Osorio’s latest works delve into the interplay between mischief, myth, and art. Following upon her recent solo show in Athens, Greece, Osorio focuses on the long-standing archetype of the trickster in Greek mythology and other cultures. As Lewis Hyde states in his book, Trickster Makes This World, “Trickster is the mythic embodiment of ambiguity and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox.” It is in this ability to hold contradictory positions that artistic renewal occurs. New possibilities also emerge for Osorio’s idiosyncratic language of thought and unreasoning. Employing a preparatory process of collage and improvisation, Osorio reorders the meaning of signs and signifiers taken out of their original context to raise more questions than can be answered at first glance of one of her paintings. Encoding meaning becomes the focus of the creative process and with it, Osorio consciously investigates artifice and its ability to both mask and reveal personal, social, and cultural assumptions. In a work like The Troublesome Bouquet (2007), Osorio depicts a delicately painted circular swag of flowers and feathers interwoven with skeleton bones and the legs of a woman. Simultaneously beautiful and grotesque, The Troublesome Bouquet demonstrates that the act of revealing absurd and impossible scenarios conceals an imperative impulse to make sense of what unfolds in daily life. In Osorio’s own words, “Psychological tensions depicted through the use of positive and negative space betray the need for order and stability in the picture plane. Aesthetic beauty obscures the shadow self. A puzzling image subverts an easy answer to philosophical quandaries. These are the realizations I derive from the process of creating and imagining unusual scenarios.” Ruby Osorio, who received her B.A. in Sociology and Chicano Studies from University of California, Los Angeles, is concerned with upending traditional representations of Latinas in art as well as in the mass media at large. Ranging from hand-sized sketches to mural-scaled works, Osorio's cartoon-like drawings can appear deceptively charming and "cute," but, like a teenage girl who has mastered the art of jujitsu, they pack a surprising punch. What is ultimately at stake for Osorio is not beauty, but power, more specifically the empowerment of women. Juxtaposing sutured bits of thread with solid inked lines and appliquéd elements, Osorio's subject matter is often erotic in nature. Young women in undergarments frolic in natural settings. Usually, there are no men in these scenarios, only lovely women with flowing hair flitting like tiny, enchanted creatures amidst flowers, stars, and butterflies. Upon closer inspection, we see actions that are normally considered taboo: a woman sitting on the toilet, for example, replaces the historically far more common trope of a nude woman submerged in a bath. Desire, even lust, are celebrated in Osorio's quirky paeans to femininity, but the real power emerges not from any particular act of rebellion but rather in her characters' exuberant embrace of life and nature, without shame or hesitation. Here, there is no contradiction between (or sense of mastery over) the individual and the natural world, only harmonious coexistence. Arcanum Editions, New York has published a suite of four six-color lithographs hand drawn by Ruby Osorio. Such Wayward Whimsies, Osorio’s first suite of prints, were inspired by four specific prints from Goya’s Los Caprichos and examine women on the brink of betrothal or seduction. The prints are infused with an unflinching feminine perspective and fashioned with hand stitching, intricate color palates, precise rendering and fantastical imagery. Printed in Los Angeles at El Nopal Press, the suite is an edition of 25 with six artist proofs. Ruby Osorio’s work is currently on view in Domestic Departures, a group show that includes Kiki Smith, Kara Walker and Amy Cutler at the Cal State University, Fullerton museum. In September she had a solo exhibition at Vamiali in Athens, Greece. Her first museum show, Ruby Osorio: Story of a Girl (Who Awakes Far, Far Away), was exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in 2005 and the Laguna Art Museum in 2006. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London and reviewed in numerous publications.
Ruby Osorio, Incantation of Flight and Free Form, 2006, Ink and colored pencil on paper, 30 x 22". |
Ruby Osorio, Bell Jar Malady, 2006, Ink, gouache, colored pencil and thread on paper, 30 x 66". |
