Abismael “Aby” Ruiz
Arecibo, PR, 1971
Arecibo, PR, 1971
Painter, illustrator, graphic artist and creator of site specific installations. Self-taught, he ventured from drawing up to projects in the advertising field. Afterwards, he took painting classes with Spaniard Pablo San Segundo. Subsequently, from 2001 to 2003, he carried out formal studies in painting, drawing and printmaking at the Specialized School of Fine Arts in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, under the tutelage of Professor and Artist Roland Borges Soto. His work has been exhibited internationally, including Santo Domingo, Brazil, United States and Canada, while at the same time maintaining himself consistently active in the Puerto Rican art scene. Human figures of raw facial expressions are a constant feature of his prolific work, most often in disorganized and chaotic surroundings. His work reflects an expressionist character of social themes.
“If we plot the human course since birth, adolescence and adulthood, we will run into scenes that we’ll brand as repulsive, in view of the conduct expected by society or by the daily social interaction, behaviors that we learn to redeem or condemn.
When we see the same phases represented pictorially capturing a fugitive of justice, as well as a child with his gaze lost in the discovery of life, the work becomes a mirror that joins us in complicity. This way, the trajectory of artist Aby Ruiz manages to seduce us to turn us into believers of a stark daily reality.
The human figure is the frequent protagonist in his works, but in addition to seeking from us to focus at the clothing or their ephemeral accessories; he makes us see the frozen movement of our decisions like a caricature that silently reveals its leading thoughts as a floating cloud over its head. The artist achieves his apex when he interprets our human existence without Florentine decorations, covering our thirst of belonging as much as the strange solitude in the middle of great company.
Stopping in front of his works is not an act of scientific dissection, but of putting together meanings that vanish and materialize, trying to validate the human experience to the fullest.”
Ramsés Luquis, 2008
2001-2003
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Alegre Barrios, Mario. “Nuestra savia creativa”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 10 de junio de 2005.
Alegre Barrios, Mario. “Viva la plástica en Arecibo”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 18 de julio de 2002.
Álvarez Lezama, Manuel. “Examples of Neo-Figuration in PR”. The San Juan Star (San Juan, PR), 28 de mayo de 2007.
“Arte Boricua con proa a Montreal”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 7 de agosto de 2007.
“Boricua exhibe en Miami, Latin American Art Museum of Miami”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 23 de junio de 2003.
“Cornucopia pictórica y tremendista”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 12 de julio de 2005
“El Ateneo anuncia sus premios artísticos”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 12 de diciembre de 2006.
“Expo Montreal de Canadá”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 28 de julio de 2008.
“Exposición de pinturas en Inter de Arecibo”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 20 de mayo de 2002.
González, Leyra E. “Las inquietudes de Aby Ruiz”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 3 de junio de 2008.
“Monumentos, arte cautivo y una trienal”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 18 de octubre de 2007.
“Muestra Colectiva en Arecibo”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 28 de agosto de 2002.
“Mujeres santas y pecadoras en San Sebastián”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 17 de febrero de 2006.
“Newshow by neofiguration a must-see”. The San Juan Star (San Juan, PR), 3 de septiembre de 2007.
Pérez, Tatiana. “Arte nuevo y accesible”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 9 de agosto de 2006.
Pérez, Tatiana. “Resonancias estéticas de Aby Ruíz”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 12 de julio de 2005.
Rodríguez, Jorge. “Aby Ruíz, de lo figurativo a lo abstracto”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 1 de noviembre de 2004.
Rodríguez, Jorge. “El comején y la Pangola”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 20 de octubre de 2006.
Rodríguez, Jorge. “Obras Emergentes”. El Vocero (San Juan, PR), 10 de agosto de 2006.
Toro, Ana Teresa. “Accesible comunión creadora”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 23 de junio de 2005.