Eli Ruhala
Eli Ruhala grew up in North Texas. He received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA from Texas Christian University. His work has been exhibited nationally, including a solo exhibition at White Columns in New York selected by Matthew Higgs, and exhibitions at Dallas Contemporary, Art League Houston, Arts Fort Worth, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and Southwest Contemporary, and he is represented by Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas.
My work uses building materials such as drywall, lumber, joint compound, graphite, and paint to construct immersive environments that operate as both architecture and painting. Stud walls and drywall panels function simultaneously as support, surface, and subject. Scenes emerge through sanding, layering, and drilling rather than preconceived metaphor or straightforward illustration. Large animated queer figures tied up in these materials conjure embodied memory and the many forms it takes.
These materials are ubiquitous in the context of labor and utility and yet many viewers are unable to recognize them. I expose these materials for what they are, freeing them from function and allowing them to exist in a raw or unfinished state. Taken out of the job-site they have to develop new ways to sustain themselves.