I always felt that Anna Ruth’s paintings are about interactions, associations, and relationships, and what's often described as the dynamics of duality. This is why I particularly enjoyed the way her paintings were displayed at her Amsterdam solo debut with GRIMM, Close Quarters, regularly paired up, in conversation, extending narratives from one format into the other, and blending their hazy atmosphere with the gallery’s sundrenched space.
It’s not easy to pinpoint the level of interaction, association, relationship, or duality I'm referring to here. I’m not talking about a mere exchange of information or sentiments, nor about a direct clash of opposites. The nuance often captured in these images, and beyond them, is one of quiet coexistence, yet with the potential to become much more intense. This could be a hand between the fragile threads of grass, a grasshopper standing still under a large mass, or a numb face staring at a dead dove; there is never a direct sense of threat, but there’s always an underlying tension. Beyond images, this tension extends to the way that Ruth paints on unprimed canvas, applying and handling the diluted acrylics as watercolor. Most of the time, she allows it to flow and sink between the weaves of the surface, occasionally making sure it precisely defines the image or its traits. Such language in itself holds on to the restrained discord, remaining indisputably readable, but always with its toes over the edge of the abyss.
And beyond the canvas itself, there are subtle ways in which Ruth continues this narrative. The scale of the large canvases contrasts with the fragile sensibility of the images, while the smaller-scale works underscore these dynamics by being framed in sturdy iron frames that clash directly with the soft, silky, sepia-toned images. Roughened around the edges, they are equally protective frontiers for the stories within and symbols of their constraint. Further on, this whole concept culminates in a large installation that seamlessly fits with the former canal-side domestic space. Comprising horse collars turned into mirrors, assembled in a shell-like form in which one part reflects the other, the two sculptural works (Vanity and Mirrors, both 2026) symbolize relationship dynamics. Representing partners growing closer to each other and, in the process, somewhat losing their individuality, these works highlight the thin line between coexistence and struggle. —Saša Bogojev
