By Danny C. Sillada

Abstract paintings pullulating with red and golden hues, black baby dolls crawling toward a television screen, and labyrinthine electronic gadgets with eerie lights sum up the "Technological Sublimation" of the award winning Filipino painter, installation and performance artist Ronaldo Ruiz.

In his particular installation "Technological Sublimation", Ruiz came up with a concept how television and computer could distort the minds of the children and teenagers with his powerful imagery of baby black dolls watching another doll on TV monitor with iconic head and body stuck with syringes. The result is hauntingly surreal and mesmeric.

The artist never ceases exploring what technology could offer in his art, be it installation or live art performance. He manipulates and exploits technological gadgets to send across his message that technology could either build or destroy. It sounds trite and banal but Ruiz, like a shaman, had masterfully delivered his ingenuity with a powerful specter of reality in our society.

In contrast to his abstract paintings, his installations and live art performances are more dynamic and visually compelling. His paintings, on the other hand, evoke the balance of forms and colors, a conscious portrayal of yîn and yang. The subdued primary colors and refined patterning textures on canvas reflect the artist's archetypal persona.

Surprisingly, however, the artist's installation and performance art reveal the repressed side of his personality. His installation, for instance, discloses his inner self dashed with satirical sentiment and existential angst. The unrestrained histrionic portrayal of his three-dimensional pieces serves as a liberating device of his inner struggle as an artist of incalculable vision and eloquence.

To sum, the art of Ronaldo Ruiz invites the viewers to immerse into his own world of harmony and disorder. At times, his art can be visually appealing, evoking serenity within, but most often, his art perturbs and provokes bringing the viewers to their own reality, a reality numbed with complacency and cynicism.

Ruiz paintings and installations are currently on view at Galerie Astra, 2/F LRI Business Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St.(formerly Reposo) ,
Bel Air II, Makati City, Philippines, up to December 7, 2006.

Galerie Astra telephone nos. (632) 890.3988 or (632) 726.9015

LINKS: The Art of Ronaldo Ruiz - http://dcsillada.multiply.com/photos/album/38

Photo by Ronaldo Ruiz.

Start:	Nov 24, '06 6:00p
End:	Dec 7, '06
Location:	2/F the Art Pavilion LRI Business Center which is located at 210 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo St.) Makati City.

Ronaldo Ruiz holds his 13th one-man exhibition, TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIMATION, at the Galerie Astra, 2/F the Art Pavilion LRI Business Center which is located at 210 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo St.) Makati City, telephone no. (632) 890-3988. Inspired by technology and its ensuing effects to art and society, Ruiz’s pieces -- paintings, installations and new media works -- utilize a mix of the traditional and the cutting edge. The exhibition will formally open on November 24, 2006, Friday, at 6:00 in the evening. Running until December, 7, TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIMATION is dedicated to the memory of the artist’s best friend and batchmate Angelito Matibag, who recently passed away.

Ruiz studied fine arts at the University of the East, Philippines. He was awarded by the Cultural Center of the Philippines the Thirteen Artist Award of 2003 in recognition of his significant contribution to the expanding language and evolutionary dynamics of the Philippine Contemporary Art. Ruiz was also an artist in residence at Artspace, Sydney Australia in 1999 and did several group exhibitions and performances in the Philippines and abroad, including theTupada Xing, Singapore 2006, Art Fair, Singapore and Thailand 2006, Korea-Philippines Fine Art Festival 2006, Sovereign Asian Art Exhibition, Hongkong 2004, Taiwan-Asia Performance Art Meeting 2004, Recontre International d' Art Performance de Quebec, Canada 2004, 4th and 5th International Multimedia Art Festival, Yugoslavia 2002 and 2004, Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Japan 2003 and 2001, Nagano Art Fuku Masu Projects, Japan 2002, Philip Morris Asian Art Award, Singapore and Burnei 2000, Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival, Thailand 2000 and Perspecta, Australia 1999, among others, Aside from being one of the organizer of Tupada Action and Media Art (TAMA), Ruiz presently serves as Secretary for the Art Association of the Philippines.

www.ronaldoruiz.multiply.com