Baik Art is pleased to present OO, an exhibition of new sculptures by Los Angeles artist, Ross Rudel. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo showing with the gallery and will be on display from November 11 through January 13.

Ross Rudel’s contemplation of the metaphysical realm anchors itself to an environmental omnipresence. Lifeless organic matter is reborn as gendered sculpture and fallen branches are whittled into increments of time. Rudel’s recent works reflect his life-long relationship with the natural world and the clashing interventions of societal conduct. The artist’s continued focus on transforming found plant material into anthropomorphic signifiers, is a process that highlights mankind’s disconnect from the celestial, biological, and spiritual cycles from which we originate. At a time when the human experience is increasingly infringed on by the rhetoric of a select few, arbitrary hierarchies form around distinctions of gender, culture, and religion. Rudel utilizes motifs that are indicative of these classifications to highlight the fluidity between them and their relationships to broader concepts involving time and space. Amoeba-like structures linger through the gallery in vague succession, providing snapshots of ephemeral human relationships. The artist’s sculptures work with one another to build a continuum of narratives that offer glimpses into each object’s specific history, as well as the artist’s culmination of work thus far.

The work, being meticulously hand-crafted in nocturnal solitude, reflects a keen fetish for detail. Each piece’s fixation over physical perfection alludes to a perverse tension between an entity and its creator. Cracks and knots imbued in the artist’s raw materials are forced into rigid portrayals of spiritual iconography and erogenous anatomy. This endeavor, of manifesting fixed symbiotic systems out of naturally flawed matter, can be seen as an allegorical nod to the cultural objectification and categorization of interconnected ideologies and identities.

From sacred geometry to Pagan folklore and fetishized surfaces, Rudel uses his haptic familiarity to create sensual objects that are difficult to classify. Instead, the work remains in a state of flux, often entrapped by its duality and poised on the verge of transformation. In the midst of entropy, we enter a meditative pause, allowing us to gain perspective on our own precedents, surroundings, and cycles of metamorphosis.

Ross Rudel has a BA from Montana State University and an MFA from UC Irvine. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland; The Panza Collection, Varese, Italy; Museo di Arte, Trento e Rovereto, Italy; Angeles Gallery, Los Angeles; and Studio la Citta, Verona, Italy; Jack