Albertz Benda
Dallas Art Fair 2018

For the 2018 edition of the Dallas Art Fair, albertz benda is pleased to present Brie Ruais and John Mason, two sculptors using clay as their chosen medium.

Merging the movements and weight of her body with hunks of clay, BRIE RUAIS stomps, kicks, stretches, wedges, rakes, and pulls clay into abstract, organic forms that serve as records of her actions. With heavily worked surfaces finished with richly colored glazes, her pieces recall landscapes, abstract paintings, and the contours of the body itself. The physicality of relationship to clay is palpable, channeling textured lines that pull the eye around, down, or along her sculptures. In her words, “For me, the work [is] about what happens when one’s body is overcome by a physically demanding process...We are forced to remember that making something sometimes requires the laborious use of the body.”

Emerging in LA’s burgeoning art scene in the 1950s, JOHN MASON transcended any hierarchical order of materials to embrace ceramic practice, translating the physicality and intuitive spirit of Abstract Expressionism and other prescient ideas into large-scale clay sculpture. With roots in Mason’s earliest forays into the expressive potential of clay, the latest series of works featured in albertz benda’s booth reflect the artist's enduring interest in mathematics, structure, and aesthetics but present entirely new and distilled forms. Through trial and error and incessant material investigations, Mason has created a language of geometrical elements, stackable components and high fire glazes that culminate in elegant minimalist forms.

DALLAS ART FAIR WEBSITE

On April 11, New York-based visual and performance artist JEN RAY will collaborate with Texan singer/songwriter Sarah Jaffe on a newly-commissioned performance piece, entitled Eyes as Bright as Diamonds, as a prelude to the 2018 Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music & Arts Festival and in partnership with Dallas Art Fair.