About the Artist

Ruth Chase is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute whose work engages and activates community bridge-building. She created the West of Lincoln Project, which was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for Art in Action, as well as a grant to an individual artist from the Carl Jacobs Foundation. Granted a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in NY, published in Professional Artist Magazine, Catapult Art Magazine and Huffington Post, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum. Ruth was a featured sketch artist on the Dead Files TV program, was awarded an Artist in Residence at Nevada County Arts for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for BELONGING, I AM HERe, and most recently HOME. BELONGING screened at 18th Annual Nevada City Film Festival (AKA “Sundance of the Sierra”), and at Wild & Scenic Film Festival during 2019.

About the Exhibition

I struggle with the notion of what a woman is. My work explores what it means to be a woman and the struggle to understand all that entails. I create large intimate paintings from images that women have submitted and from selfies that my daughter has taken. I also create public art installations and video from public engagement projects. Motherhood opened a world within me that is both painful and empowering. Causing me to reevaluate the roles I have resisted and submitted to, and how I see myself as a woman. Using my daughters’ selfies, I am able to capture the complexity of the mother/daughter relationship. Experiencing my daughter’s adolescence has awoken memories, causing a deep reflection on how our childhood shapes us as women, and the role vulnerability plays in our development. Working with images that women have submitted allows me to step back and see a broader view of the female experience. I use social media as a communal aspect of my process that takes me out of the isolation of my studio and expands my understanding of women outside of my own experiences.

Ruth Chase  website | Facebook | instagram | vimeo | CV

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

• In Remembrance of a Peaceful Warrior

  Thursday, April 1st - Friday, May 7th

• Second Saturday Art Walks

  Saturday, May 8th

• Tina Basich Haller: Bent But Not Broken, A Scoliosis Journey Through Art

  Friday, May 14th - Friday, June 18th

• Second Saturday Art Walks

  Saturday, June 12th

• Off The Wall

  Friday, June 25th - Friday, July 30th