I am interested in creating images that are not easily understood. Where there is this sense of being outside of a specific place or time. Where past, present and future collide and are coexisting within the same space. Bringing in an quietness, a slowing down and focusing in. Within all that, exploring blackness through the figurative form and the colour itself and all that it implies. In conjunction weaving in a form of portraiture and exploring how that relates to importance and documentation of existence and art history. Also dealing with both the painting histories of abstraction and figuration in relation to representation and absence. Using secrecy and mystery as a form of empowerment in the portrayal of blackness. As the figures portrayed are not easy to write off with the usual stereotypes, due to the constant concealing and revealing that occurs through moving between abstraction and figuration. Overall I want to create narratives of blackness that are enigmatic and not expected.

Ruth Ige (b. 1992, Nigeria) holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Auckland University of Technology.

Recent exhibitions include: Group Show, Karma, New York, 2019; Pleiades: Seven Sisters of New Zealand, Group Exhibtion, Gow Langsford, Auckland, 2019; Two Oceans at Once, ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland, 2019; Never an Answer: 12 Abstract Painters, The Vivian, Matakana, 2018; LISTE—Art Fair Basel, Switzerland, 2018; and Dirt Future, Artspace, Auckland, 2017.