06 Oct 2017

Ruth Root

356 Mission

Reviewed by Jeff Hansen

Compared to kimonos, building blocks from the game Minecraft, or even the set of "Peewee's Playhouse," Ruth Root's paintings appear functional, almost manufactured. However, up close, the paintings reveal a balance of engineering with a rich, gestural surface.

Her oddly shaped paintings expand far beyond traditional boundaries of stretcher and canvas. The half-Plexiglas, half-fabric "wall-objects" cleverly fold into one another with origami precision. On the Plexiglas, stripes slathered with enamel perhaps reference works by Daniel Buren. In contrast, fabrics printed with clusters of abstraction, including Frank Stella paintings and tiny slices of pizza, resemble African textiles.

Root's paintings have a goofy, yet sophisticated relationship to the windows, doors, floor, and ceiling of the warehouse exhibition space. Reminiscent of works by James Hyde and Mary Heilmann, Root keeps a foot on art historical references while ingenuity takes the wheel.