Reverence & Burden: Gregory Ruppe

Gregory Ruppe, Ft. Worth, TX

Gregory Ruppe, Ghostride to Oblivion, Mixed Media, 2012

Gregory Ruppe queries how memories and cultural norms imbue inanimate objects for his Concept/OK residency project, Things will never be the same. Working with sound, video and multiple media, Ruppe will present a dramatically altered piano.

He said, “Commonplace among households, the piano occupies a space of both reverence and burden. It is simultaneously cherished and unwanted.” 

Gregory Ruppe, Ghostride to Oblivion, Mixed Media, 2012

In his MFA exhibition at Texas Christian University earlier this year, Ruppe culminated a yearlong project where he documented and modified his beloved motorcycle. In this, he grappled with questions control and our relationship to the past and present like he will in the Concept/OK project. Guest curator Alison Hearst  recruited and is working with Ruppe. 

Gregory Ruppe, Mixed Media, 2012

Ruppe utilizes a broad range of media and materials, video, and sound to create installations and project-based works. He has exhibited regionally and internationally, most recently at Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas) and in Hiroshima, Japan. 

Ruppe is also a founding member of HOMECOMING!, an experimental artist collective based in Fort Worth, where he currently lives and works.

The Concept/OK: Art in Oklahoma exhibition opens December 16, 1-5 pm at the new Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council’s Hardesty Arts Center. See www.concept-ok.org for more information.