Gerry Ruecker
Gerry Ruecker is a self-taught artist and art educator who has for the past thirty years, been working in mixed media sculpture, both functional and non-functional. He creates assemblages utilizing primarily disparate cast-off materials and found objects, such as old furniture and scraps of wood, rusted and tarnished scraps of metal, old toys, kitsch etc.
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Ruecker’s creative influences include the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi; Wabi Sabi (the Japanese philosophy of imperfection and impermanence); the Italian Design group Memphis, and American Sculptor Nick Cave. He has exhibited frequently in Canada and Jamaica, and his work can be found in numerous collections both nationally and internationally, including Saskatchewan Arts Board and City of Regina Permanent Collections.
Artist's Statement
My current work is an exploration referencing ideas of a sense of place, personal and impersonal histories (both real and imagined), and permanence/impermanence. The work consists of the synthesis of cast-off, discarded items (such as old pieces of found wood and building materials, rusted metals etc) with highly contrasting ornate baroque-influenced picture frames, and other miscellaneous related materials.
Born and raised locally in the Prairies, I have for the majority of my life, felt a special affinity for and been drawn to age-worn and discarded materials, and the imagined histories of abandoned rural buildings. And living in a time of plastic overuse, ‘fast fashion’ and ‘here today, gone later today’ trends, I find it appealing that these time-worn, disposed of materials and items that have experienced whole other lives and usefulnesses, and are now imbued with a new and repurposed life having no relation to their original function. In blending these no longer wanted or needed items within an excessively elaborate style that has been for centuries the standard of ‘classy’, a completely new life develops and blossoms from the old.
Paradoxically, after a life-changing introduction to the magnificent and unparalleled eccentric work of Spanish Architect Antoni Gaudi, I am equally drawn to the excessive, elaborate ornamentation exemplified for example, by the Baroque period.
My working method is intuitive and spontaneous in nature, much like improvisation in music…..and the course of life itself. Each work is an ongoing exploratory progression, developing in a completely unplanned fashion, with no prior fixed idea of either how the piece will develop, or of the specific materials that will be included in its construction. ‘Accidents’, ‘mistakes’ and mid-project shifts in direction are an integral, vital aspect of my creative process (as they are in life), often furnishing me with a new technique or medium to be investigated, honed and unfolded into my work.
Contact
For more information or to purchase a piece of work, please contact Gerry directly.
