When I first started at Tor, one of my most favorite people to work with was Gary Ruddell. About ten years ago he turned toward gallery work and, while we never kept in touch, I have very much enjoyed following his career from afar.Last week, Gary had a solo show in Chelsea, at the Henoch Gallery. I was as excited to see him as I was to see his artwork. He was, as always, a delight and the paintings were, as expected, even more evocative in person than in the printed materials I have seen them.
He works on large canvases, exploring scenes that are both vast and deeply internal, realist and loose -- edges are often defined, obscured, and then re-defined. He has developed a personal language that the viewer feels confident in, whether or not they assign the same meaning to the imagery as Gary does. All in all, it becomes a kind of dream landscape that is truly exciting because it feels almost explicable.
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Gary and I in 1999, Point Rhyes, California.