HARTFORD, CONN.- Artist Alan Ruiz debuts a new body of work made in response to an unrealized 2002 plan to expand the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Entering the 50th year of the Wadsworth’s signature MATRIX contemporary exhibition series, Ruiz’s project continues a groundbreaking legacy of championing site-specific artmaking within the museum’s encyclopedic collections and historic buildings.

Known for his critical examinations of the built environment, Ruiz draws attention to the political and unconscious functions of the spaces we occupy. At the Wadsworth, he focuses on a proposal to radically reimagine the museum’s campus for the new millennium. The installation Split Object features aluminum sculptures informed by the geometry of the architectural model, a subject of heated public debate when it was displayed in 2002. Using the now archived model as a source of inspiration, Ruiz invites viewers to consider changing ideas around social institutions, audience, politics, and self-image—both in Hartford and globally.

“Alan Ruiz’s thoughtful, provocative project extends the Wadsworth’s remarkable history of support for artists who are thinking critically about the way art is exhibited, collected, and cared for,” said Jared Quinton, Emily Hall Tremaine Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. “Alan Ruiz is now part of a legacy that includes Sol LeWitt, Daniel Buren, Louise Lawler, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Andrea Fraser, and other luminaries in the field of site-specific art. I’m excited about the potential of this exhibition to spark dialogue within the Wadsworth’s community about the role museum architecture plays in how we see ourselves, project our values, and relate to the world around us.”

Evoking the unrealized proposal’s aim to improve the connection between the Wadsworth and its surroundings, Ruiz opened three windows in the MATRIX Gallery’s east-facing wall, which are normally closed off. A museographic work titled Complexes, consisting of eight metal plaques installed throughout the museum’s five buildings, contextualizes Ruiz’s installation within broader systems of classification, invoking Hartford’s reputation as the insurance capital of the world or “America’s filing cabinet.”

A new critical text by the artist explores these ideas in depth and is published alongside the exhibition.

Alan Ruiz (born 1984 in Mexico City; lives and works in New York, N.Y.).

Alan Ruiz has held recent solo exhibitions at CCS Hessel Museum of Art, Annadale-on-Hudson, NY (2022) and The Kitchen, New York (2021). He has participated in group exhibitions at venues including the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität Berlin (2022); Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf (2021); F, Houston (2020); Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zürich (2020); Callicoon Fine Arts, New York (2019); and TG, Nottingham (2018). He has presented talks and participated in public programs at The Chinati Foundation, Dia: Beacon, Kunstverein München, The Artist’s Institute, and SculptureCenter. His writing has been published in Artforum, Transatlantique, BOMB Magazine, and Movement Research Performance Journal. He is a recipient of a 2019 Creative Capital Award and a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Architecture.

Explore more of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art's collection here.



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