Online Exclusive, Reviews

Ruby Sky Stiler

Figures in Duration

Words PLUS MAGAZINE

In Ruby Sky Stiler’s exhibition at Alexander Gray Associates, the viewer is first met with two distinct approaches to the figure. Along the walls, a continuous mural runs through the gallery in a warm terracotta line, while the paintings introduce a concentrated, built surface. Together, these elements define how the exhibition comes into view: through drawing, repetition, and the physical presence of the body in space.

The paintings are composed of hundreds of small shapes that lock together like tile. Each piece of the composition is hand drawn, then transferred into paint, creating surfaces that resemble patchwork or relief. These small units shift in tone from pale blue to deep marine, giving the figures a clear structure without relying on volume or shading. Limbs and torsos are built from stacked curves and angled blocks, so the figure becomes visible through the gradual layering of shapes rather than through an outline. The effect is straightforward and easy to read, anchored in a process that echoes the logic of collage.

The mural functions differently. It stretches from one end of the gallery to the other in a single unbroken drawing. Its figures are pared down to outlines: long torsos, bent knees, tilted heads. The terracotta color sits lightly on the wall, yet its scale gives the drawing a strong architectural presence. Moving around corners and doorways, it sets the rhythm of the room, and its placement at eye level brings the viewer into its scale.

Seeing the mural and paintings together clarifies how Stiler thinks about the figure as both a subject and a structure. The mural reduces the body to line, treating it as a framework that can guide the room. The paintings treat the body as something assembled, built piece by piece from repeated marks. This contrast shows how Stiler shifts between drawing and construction, between a figure that directs space and a figure that grows from the surface outward.

Color plays a central role in the paintings. The limited palette focuses attention on pattern and form. Scenes of family, care, and domestic closeness appear through this system. Even without facial expression or detailed setting, the relationships between figures read clearly because of how bodies overlap or hold one another. The consistent use of blue unifies the groupings and emphasizes the artist’s interest in how meaning can arise through simple, repeated components.

Across her broader practice, Stiler consistently approaches the figure as something built from parts. Early relief works carved from foam and wood established her interest in fragmentation, while her use of collage, printmaking transfers, and modular drawing systems reflects a consistent attention to building form through repeated parts. Classical motifs, children’s drawings, and everyday visual sources often appear as reference points, not as quotations but as materials folded into her process. This blend of historical imagery and personal mark making gives her figures a grounded quality, shaped by both art history and the ordinary rhythms of daily life. Understanding this background makes clear how Long Pose fits within her ongoing commitment to construction, repetition, and the physicality of drawing.

Stiler’s mural and paintings confront the viewer with two ways of making the figure: one that stretches across space in a continuous line, the other built from countless discrete marks. Long Pose intensifies this tension, showing the figure taking form gradually, with each shape, line, and interval adding to its presence in the space.

Ruby Sky Stiler’s “Long Pose” is on view at Alexander Gray Associates, 384 Broadway, New York, from November 7 to December 20, 2025.