Ruth Speer (b. 1996, England) is a German-American artist working across painting and sculpture. She splits her time between London, UK and Oregon, U.S.A. Speer thinks of her work as a series of personal folktales, a combination of odd utility, scene selections and allegories of something true. She paints on wood for its surface, history, sense of usefulness beyond the work and nearness to domesticity, and often build wooden structures to house my paintings as a continuation of the interior life she grew up with, homeschooled with her sisters in rural areas on both sides of the States. The imagery of mythology and visual language of Western painting history reflects this experience, being the textbooks she consumed most fervently as a child, and which she now use to communicate in her work.
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Richard Saltoun London, UK, 2025); (Upcoming) All About Eve, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery London, UK (2025); (Upcoming) Chilli Arts Projects, London, UK , (2025); (Upcoming) Arusha Gallery, London, UK (2025); (Upcoming) 10th Anniversary Auction, Art on a Postcard, London, UK (2024); Graduate Show 2024, Bowman Sculpture, London, UK Fragments of Existence, Soho Revue, London, UK (2024); Godspeed, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK (MFA Thesis Exhibition) (2024); Soup, Greatorex Street, London, UK (2024); Moleskine Project, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, AZ (2022); Animalia, Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY (2021); Unnatural Histories, Antler Gallery, Portland, OR Profiles, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2020); 8 Year Anniversary, Arch Enemy Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2020); The Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, Minthorne Gallery, Newberg, OR (BA Thesis Exhibition) (2019); Dreamlore, Talon Gallery, Portland, OR (Duo Show with Edith LeBeau) (2018); Little Utopias, Talon Gallery, Portland, OR (2017); Glow, Arch Enemy Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2017); Flower Child, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, (2017).
Highlights
Ruth Speer was recently shortlisted for New Contemporaries 2024 (2024) and the Aidan Threlfall Trust Award (2024).