ART GALLERY OF REGINA

Ruth Chambers' solo exhibition, Tend, draws upon the elegiac traditions of floral still-life painting and systematic enumeration of plants by unsung botanical illustrators. Chambers pinches, plucks and pulls exquisitely detailed, life-sized flowers from lightly tinted porcelain clay. She faithfully observes and renders each bulb and geophyte plant from life – sometimes juxtaposing the delicate fold of a wilted petal with a vigorously swollen bud and succulent stem.

Unlike live plants, the specimens pinned to the wall and display tables in Tend are chalky and brittle – arrested and calcified in various stages of sprouting, blooming and withering. Drained of their vibrant colour, pale hollyhocks and chalky hyacinths float away from the wall, a spectre of their exotic roots.

Ruth Chambers works primarily in ceramics and installation, often incorporating innovative approaches to ceramic sculpture. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, including solo exhibitions as Koyegama Gallery in Tokoname, Japan, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario and the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. The work in Tend grew out of an artists' residency at Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre, Denmark, in 2018.