Maritza Ruiz-Kim

Artist Statement:

Almost everything that is whole is made up of smaller interlocking parts. But what is in between here and there, this and that, one person and another? What is happening to the connections between us, from the micro level of individual experience to the macro level of social structures? What do we reveal when we devise systems to categorize each other? What are we hiding? What is valued? What is subjugated?

As I work, I find this story in the interplay between the interior of a piece, the surface, and the materials. I smooth paint, bury information, and set layers in place with intense heat. In other works, I use hardware to create a counterintuitive balance as a delicate experience between stable daily life and its harsh realities. The constant inquiry into the meaning of what’s happening to connections between people, materials, and structures naturally leads to my awareness of my own interactions with the materials in my studio. The video narratives are a record of that experience.

The material combinations, the titles, and the layers of imagery built into each piece (then subtly obscured) create a passive expectation of exchange between the work and the viewer. I find a rich tableau in the pause that happens in that time of careful consideration.

Maritza Ruiz-Kim is an artist living and working in the East Bay. Maritza received her BFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute at age 20. She enjoys exploring human inter-connectedness, and she examines underlying sociological themes using diverse subject matter & materials.

Her work has been exhibited locally at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, the Compound Gallery in Oakland,  the ArtPadSF Fair, and the UC Berkeley Extension Art & Design gallery in SoMA.  She has also shown nationally in New York, Santa Fe, Brooklyn, Miami and Provincetown.