Ana Ruiz

Ana Ruiz, of Spanish origin, comes from a family where art and music have always been present, which has been an important motivation for creating sculpture.

Ana, graduated in Fine Arts from the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, where the curriculum required her to try out a variety of artistic skills. She won an Erasmus scholarship to study in Italy, where she decided finally to specialise in sculpture, studying for 3 years in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara.

At the same time she was attending the Professional Institute for Scuola dell Marmo “Pietro Itacca” and the Scuola Libera dell Nudo where she was receiving tuition in the skills of mosaics and engraving. Ana took part in different collective exhibitions and important events such as the Fiera Marmo Machina di Carrara.

The most productive aspect of this period was the discovery of a delight in stone and contact with sculptors and craftsmen from all parts of the world.

After these years in Italy, she went to Valencia in Spain to continue with her studies, beginning a doctorate in ‘Sculpture and new Experimental Trends’. She learned more about stone techniques from her teacher and the director of her thesis, Vicente Ortí, a great Valencian sculptor. She also learned low relief techniques from the renowned sculptor, Jose Esteve.

From Valencia Ana Ruiz travelled to Germany to create a large public sculpture in Bulgarian marble that belongs to her series ‘Pregnancy’. This series marks her most recent work, seeking through conceptual and abstract sculpture to manifest the beauty of the stone, the dynamics of the curves and the contrasts between different textures.

Another sculpture with the title ‘Life’ that she carried out the same year in Galicia also belongs to this series. The sculpture is in black granite, 2 metres in height, and won First Prize in the Simposium de Escultura al Aire Libre de O Grove (Spain).

In these works Ana doesn’t try to represent pregnant women, but rather to explore the interior state of pregnancy in the different months of the process, in order to fix the whole attention of the observer in the belly that is really the centre of interest for 9 months.

Previously she carved a series of shells in stone that characteristically played with the textures and with the tactile quality and that speak to us about the ideas of protection and cover.

Her series, ‘Curiosity’ mixes stone with ceramics or wood, creating faces of great expressiveness, freshness and spontaneity.

Ana Ruiz seeks to create a type of sculpture with character, without getting lost in details, allowing the material to speak for itself and breathe.

"When you work a piece over too much time, it loses its freshness and it stops being interesting. Every work has its moment and it is necessary to take advantage of it when it comes."

Ana Ruiz lives currently in Oxford where she is contributing to different collective exhibitions and where she is working on a new project together with the sculptor, Régis Chaperon, with whom she has formed the group ARC.

Commissions accepted
Contact: group@arcstonesculpture.com

Ana Ruiz Agui's CV is available in PDF format here..