2025 TEARS SACK, Alma Home for Culture, Tel Aviv, IL. Curator: Nimrod Samuray Levi
Photos by: Cheli Jusewitz
In the exhibition ‘Tears Sack’ Ruti De Vries shows new works based on her adaptation to two stories: a Talmudic story about Rav Rahumi and a Krishna revelation story from Hindu mythology. De Vries chose to focus on the female characters, who are nameless and have small yet crucial roles. Their gaze enables De Vries to challenge artistic traditions regarding painting and representation. Her interpretation of the view from the gallery window is made of lines and shapes, reminiscent of modernist geometric paintings. Instead of paint she uses textile and different found objects; fabrics, belts, buckles all layered, creating a composition deceptive in its depth, both stable and unstable. Therefore echoing the modernist grid without creating flatness. De Vries draws inspiration from Alma’s historic house and uses the tear from one of the stories, recreating it as a patterned wallpaper inspired by the ornamental tiles inside the gallery and correspond with window grilles outside of it.