P resenting hazy chromatic fields of vibrant magenta, luscious green, rich coral and mottled white, Sterling Ruby’s SP15 is a hypnotic example of the artist’s revered series of Spray Paintings. Inspired by the graffiti scene in Los Angeles, these unbridled, immersive abstracts are rich in contemporary social commentary, innovatively exploring the socio-cultural problem of vandalism. Serving as a mark of rebellion, graffiti in Los Angeles symbolizes the struggle of minorities, a form of radical mark making that asserted ownership and authority. In the present work, striations of inky black obscure the vaporous background of neon green and vivid pink. While the entire work possesses a magnificent pictorial cohesion, the individual color fields evoke a distant horizon, a hazy, half-seen or remembered landscape, blurred by the sweeping accretions of spray paint. Interspersing strokes and drips of paint imbue the work not only with a visual sfumato effect, but also a sense of urgency that retains the impulsiveness of graffiti art. Having conceived of the Spray Paintings in 2007, Ruby emerged as a highly influential forerunner in a bourgeoning group of artists, which include contemporary heavyweights such as Christopher Wool, Wade Guyton, Rudolf Stingel and Mike Kelley (to whom he was previously a studio assistant), who have expanded painting’s material potential through the application of an innovative conceptual strategy.

Defined by frenetic dissonance and raw expressionistic force, SP15 has a spellbinding, almost hallucinogenic effect. The artist explains: “my work evolved from looking at graffiti, vandalism, the violence of tags in the streets and other forms of visual aggression, but as is more and more the case in my work, my painting has become more formal, more abstract... I think of it in terms of space, depth, punctuation or color, as I imagine artists have been doing for centuries” (Sterling Ruby in conversation with Jérôme Sans, ‘Schizophrenic Monuments’, L’Officiel Art, March-May 2013, p. 102). SP15 is immediately redolent of the paroxysmal, spray-painted marks of Jean-Michel Basquiat; equally, the mesmeric passages of color fields call to mind the masterworks of Mark Rothko and the squeegee paintings of Gerhard Richter. Soaring to global prominence in under a decade, Ruby’s works are held in prestigious institutional collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Rubell Family Collection, Miami and the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo.

妍 麗的紫紅、飽滿的珊瑚紅、鮮翠的綠和斑駁的白層層堆疊，交織出一片朦朧的色海——《SP15》是斯特林・魯比知名系列「噴漆畫」中勾魂攝魄的典範之作。這個不拘一格的抽象系列靈感來自洛杉磯的塗鴉風氣，隱含藝術家對當今社會的回應，並以藝術創作探討破壞公物的社會文化議題。在洛杉磯，塗鴉象徵反叛精神及少數族群的掙扎，意在借助激進的方式，強調自身的所有權和權威。本作的墨黑條紋阻擋了模糊不清的霓虹綠色和粉紅色背景。雖然整個畫面渾然一體，但是隨著噴漆掃過畫面，每個單獨的色塊卻彷如遙遠的地平線，迷茫的風景似是眼前所見，又似是回憶。散落四周的線條和滴落的顏料不但賦予作品一種暈染效果，而且保留了塗鴉那種心血來潮的即興感。「噴漆畫」系列在2007年構思成形，魯比從此躋身具影響力的藝術家行列，與克里斯托弗・塢爾、韋德・蓋頓、魯道夫・斯丁格爾及麥克・凱利（魯比曾當過他的助手）等透過創新意念發掘繪畫媒材潛力的當代大師比肩而立。

狂亂和不加掩飾的表現力使本作呈現一種引人入勝的迷幻效果。魯比解釋道：「我的創作源自塗鴉、破壞行為、街頭的塗鴉暴力及其他形式的視覺暴力，不過，我的畫逐漸變得更加著重形式，更加抽象……我會從空間、深度、停頓或色彩方面對作品進行思考，就像千百年來藝術家所做的那樣」（斯特林・魯比與傑羅姆・桑斯的訪談，〈精神分裂的明證〉，《L’Officiel Art》，2013年3月至5月，頁102）。《SP15》令人聯想到巴斯基亞狂風掃落葉般的噴漆塗鴉；同時，使人心醉神迷的用色亦勾起觀者對羅斯科色域畫和里希特刮擦畫的想像。魯比在不足十年間聲名鵲起，作品見諸全球知名機構，包括洛杉磯當代藝術博物館、紐約現代藝術博物館、紐約古根海姆美術館、邁阿密魯貝爾家族收藏美術館及奧斯陸阿斯楚普・費恩利現代藝術博物館。