Galleria Duemila presents Derelict Penthouses, a one-man exhibition of recent works by Jose Tence Ruiz, from 8 November to 2 December 2008.  

Derelict Penthouses fuses painting, sculpture, and installation art. Tence Ruiz constructs elaborate vertical structures out of scrap wood coated with resin, attaching them to canvas. The artist reconstructs penthouses, among the preferred abodes of the wealthy and powerful, as architectural and symbolic aberrations and armatures exposed to the elements of decay.  

These derelict structures portrayed by Tence Ruiz go beyond formal construction. The symbolic significance of Tence Ruiz's penthouses is echoed in images of recent political and economic events: the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (9-11), the local furor over contradicting Church-State issues, and the like. He utilizes motifs from industrial and religious architectural structures, such as transmission towers and Gothic cathedrals, to denote these structures as symbols of power and prestige. Yet at the same time, the artist portrays these structures as being in a state of decay: ridden with rust and slowly collapsing under their own weight.  

All things considered, Derelict Penthouses is a scathing indictment of the two twin towers of the modern-day dominion: Capital and Church. It is a symbolic testament, as well as a fearless forecast, of the eventual fate to befall the current players of global hegemony. The artist poses the question: All empires collapse—what do we do in between?  

Tence Ruiz also presents in this show his Crux series, a set of alternating representations of the cross, among the oldest and most loaded symbols of civilization. Here, crosses constructed out of wood and resins are mounted on canvas amid a backdrop of blue, carrying with them a litany of contradictory significations: divinity and the crucifixion of Christ, medical relief and facism, nationalism and spirituality. Dark shades of resin coat the crosses with a patina of decay, as if they were artifacts excavated from a long-decayed site. Seen as a whole, the Crux series is a commentary on the shifting modes of morality prevalent within society.  

Derelict Penthouses will open simultaneously with Siete Pintados, a one-man exhibition of recent sculptures in wood by internationally acclaimed sculptor and installation artist Junyee. The two shows, through their respective modes of representation, deliver a collaborative commentary on contradictions within contemporary societies, identities and spaces on the verge of collapse.  

The two shows open on the 8^th of November (Saturday) and will be on view at Galleria Duemila until 2 December 2008. For enquiries please contact Galleria Duemila at (632) 831 9990 or (632) 833 9815, email duemila@mydestiny.net