January 2, 2007
Contact: Karen Mulcahy
For Immediate Release

RAY RUSECKAS, SIBYLLE PASCHE OPEN SHOW AT REEVES CONTEMPORARY
Ray Ruseckas, a pastel artist whose works reflect the New England landscape, opens a show of new works on January 18th at Reeves Contemporary on West 24th Street. In the project space, the gallery features the sculptures of Sibylle Pasche, a Swiss artist who works primarily in marble. The reception is Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m., and the exhibitions will run through February 17th, 2007.

Ruseckas’ work focuses on the Connecticut River Valley, his home region, where he carefully regards the moving weather, the subdued palette of the riverway and adjacent fields, and the shifting hues of the foliage. The melancholic tones are evocative of this northern clime, but also recall the nostalgic landscapes of times past. The subtle mystery of each piece relates directly back to the landscape as he experiences it, as he works plein air on the hillsides adjacent to the river.

Working the grains of the dry chalk heavily into the fibrous hand-made papers, Ruseckas tends to layer the pastels to achieve the rich, tonal quality of his compositions. Often, the surfaces read like oil paint, due to the density of the layering. The resulting tactile quality and surface texture add dimension to the work.

Ruseckas lives and works in southern Vermont, and has shown his pastels consistently in New York and New England, including the Work on Paper Fair at the Park Avenue Armory and the Art of the Twentieth Century.

Sibylle Pasche is a Swiss artist who is showing her work for the first time in New York. Her work is an inquiry into the purity of form, as rendered in Italian marble. This notable material—white, grey, black, with fine or swollen veins; porous, light brown travertine or grayish black dry slate—has fascinated artists for centuries, challenging them to evoke fluid expression despite the stone’s gravity and power. Marble is famous for the purity of its finely polished surfaces: Pasche’s rounded volumes, however, frequently involve the inclusion of raw, unpolished material as she explores the interior as well as shape the exterior form.

The works are often spherical, with imaginative and repetitive penetrations into the surface, openings in the form of indentations, hollows, incisions and cracks. The interior of the stone is hinted at, but barely revealed. The apertures are beautifully textured, and the surfaces pristine. Often the works evoke organic creatures, such as sea urchins or improbable shells; other works are impossibly beautiful carbuncles or reverse geodes. The sensuality of her sculptures is brought to a high pitch by the enduring beauty of the stone she employs.

Pasche studied at the Liceo Artistico in Zurich, where she also has taught sculpture. She maintains a studio in Switzerland and one in Carrara, Italy, where her work was shown in the XII International Biennale of Sculpture. Her work has been shown rarely in the United States; but in numerous venues in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan.


January 14, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Cynthia Reeves
Ray Ruseckas, Malcolm Wright Open Show “Chalk & Clay”
NEW YORK, NY... The exhibition entitled “Chalk and Clay” opens at Reeves Contemporary on 535 West 24 th St. in Chelsea on January 20 th with an artists’ reception between 6-8 p.m. The exhibition features the pastels of Ray Ruseckas and the subtle clay forms of Malcolm Wright. It runs through February 19 th.

Ray Ruseckas has been developing this latest series of pastels over the past year, going out with long time friend Wolf Kahn to work in the fields and valleys of northern New England. In early December, Ruseckas lost all of that work in a fire that destroyed the building where he had had his studio for over twenty years. Despite this loss, Ruseckas has been able to develop a handful of new pieces over the past month, going out with Eric Aho on the mild winter days to pastel in the Connecticut River Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. The resulting work is a beautiful documentation of the soft early winter in that northern climate.

Ruseckas’ palette lends itself naturally to these views and scenes of the woods and riverways – he goes back again and again to gentle mauves and peach tones, ochre, and a broad array of quiet greens and grays. The moodiness and subtle mystery of each piece relates directly back to the landscape as he experiences it, sitting on a hillside in a December wind, watching the weather move over the river valley.

He tends to layer up the pastel, adding level after level of subtle tones that create a remarkable depth of field. Often using handmade papers with long fibers and visible tooth, he makes good use of those attributes by literally grinding the pigments into the papers and building up off the surface. The resulting tactile quality and surface texture add dimension to the work.

Ruseckas is a reluctant artist at best, and does not create more than a dozen or so works typically in a year. This is a rare opportunity, made more so by the loss of the studio and precious work from the summer. He lives and works in southern Vermont, and has shown his pastels consistently in New York and New England, including the Work on Paper Fair at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City each March.

Reeves Contemporary is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10- 5:30 p.m. and by appointment. For information contact the gallery at 212 714 0044.