Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to present Firesticks, a solo exhibition by gallery artist, Rusty Scruby. The exhibition will open with an artist’s reception on Saturday, February 20th from 6 – 8 pm, and will be on view through March 26, 2016.
This latest body of work marks a significant shift in the artist’s personal life. With the death of a close friend and the subsequent move into a new studio, Firesticks explores the artist’s journey through a new physical and emotional terrain. For over ten years, Scruby lived surrounded by concrete, void of any real natural landscape, and his new environment presents the opportunity to grow and maintain a garden. Through the careful watch of each plant, Scruby is confronted by the continual cycle of birth, death and re-birth so closely related to his recent experiences.
Likewise, the ever-mathematical mind of Rusty Scruby finds infinite numerical sequences in his newfound relationship with nature. At the center of the work lies a unique and complex understanding of mathematical theory, ratios, and pattern.
Concurrently, the artist’s obsession with music composition plays a significant role. In the process of moving, Scruby acquires a new and much needed piano to accompany his studio practice; he begins to play new sheet music that he had not before, particularly the simplified structures of Philip Glass’ Etudes. All of these elements: the cycle of life, the simplicity of nature’s perfect geometry, and the challenge of one man’s adaptation to unexpected change, converge in the work of Firesticks.
Rusty Scruby has exhibited both nationally and abroad including exhibitions in Miami, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, Chicago and Seoul, South Korea. In 2010, he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for his solo exhibition presented by Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. His work is in major public collections including: the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Stephen Pyles Restaurant, Microsoft Corporation, Capital One, Lamar University, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
