Sterling Ruby American, b. 1972

One of the world’s leading contemporary artists, Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby probes into the legacy of Minimalism through a unique visual language spanning across diverse media and subject matter. Born on an American military base in Bitburg, Germany, he grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and New Freedom, Pennsylvania before attending the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design (1992-1996). He then received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2002), and an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California (2005). By using an extensive variety of materials such as polyurethane, bronze, steel and ceramic for sculptures, drawings and collages, photography and video, aerosol and oil paintings as well as textiles, his work questions urban gangs, street art and graffiti, hip-hop culture, globalisation, American domination and decline, waste and consumption. Sterling Ruby first gained recognition when his large-scale installation "Supermax" was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Design Center in 2008. This work examined a controversial theme such as American maximum security prisons through spray paintings, collages, and multi-material sculptures such as his iconic blood drops. His works are part of prestigious collections like the Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MoMA and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; MoCA, North Miami; MCA, Chicago; MoCA and LACMA, Los Angeles; SFMOMA, San Francisco, among others.