Ruth Cleland

Cleland was born in Hamilton in 1976 and raised in Gordonton. In 1998 she gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, and completed her Master of Fine Arts in 2002. It was at the Dunedin School of Art where she met Gary McMillan, also from the Waikato.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/7094/ruth-cleland|title=Ruth Cleland|website=Auckland Art Gallery|language=en|access-date=2020-04-15}} Since then Cleland has exhibited nationally and internationally in private galleries as well as public art institutions.

Trained as a printmaker, Cleland specialised in burnished aquatint, an intaglio process similar to mezzotint. As Cleland advanced in this printing process, she found her prints could be improved by adding detail by hand, and in 2001 she went further by combining prints and drawings on the one sheet.{{Cite magazine |last=Ballard|first=Susan |date=Spring 2002 |title=Dunedin |magazine=Art New Zealand |number=104 |pages=50–51}} Her subjects were familiar but overlooked objects and areas, such as corners of rooms, light fittings and ceiling cornices. In 2004 she turned her attention to exterior views of the suburbs around Hamilton where her parents live.{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Warwick|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4603591|title=Seen this century: 100 contemporary New Zealand artists: a collector's guide|date=2009|publisher=Godwit|isbn=978-1-86962-139-1|location=Auckland, N.Z}} Cleland presented a series of these suburbia works in 2006 at Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin. After moving to Auckland in 2006, Cleland began focusing on shopping malls.

Throughout Cleland's career the grid has remained a central motif. The grid is used as a device to map out her photo-realist drawings and paintings, the underlying grid at times remaining visible in the completed works.{{Cite journal|last=Chalmers|first=Steph|date=December 2013|title=Inland Empire|journal=Takahē|volume=80|pages=34–39}} From 2009 the grid began to feature more prominently in Cleland's work as a mode of abstraction, and in 2014 a series of these grid paintings featured as a multi-panel installation at Window Gallery in Auckland. It was also in 2014 when Cleland started to combine her two modes of working, placing the grid paintings alongside the photo-realist paintings to form diptychs.{{Cite book|last=Blomeley|first=Matt|title=Constant Practice|publisher=Franklin Arts Centre|year=2014|isbn=978-0-9941057-2-1|location=Pukekohe, Auckland|pages=7–10}}

Cleland lists Latvian-born American artist Vija Celmins among her influences, famous for her accurately rendered images of nature.

• Fluorescent (2018) at Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/unmissables-april|title=Fluorescent|last=Callister-Baker|first=Eloise|date=2018-04-06|website=The Pantograph Punch}}
• Concrete Abstraction (2016) at Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland.{{Cite magazine |last=Blomeley|first=Matt|title=Where the Suburbs Meet Utopia|magazine=Art New Zealand|number=163 |date=Spring 2017 |pages=76–79}}
• Grid (2014) at Window Gallery, University of Auckland.{{Cite web|title=Grid, Ruth Cleland |website=Window Gallery |url=https://windowgallery.co.nz/exhibitions/grid#|access-date=2020-09-10}}
• Inland Empire (2013), Calder & Lawson Gallery, University of Waikato, and Corban Estate Art Centre, Auckland. A duo exhibition with husband and fellow artist, Gary McMillan.
• Mall (2010) at Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland and Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Wellington. Cleland presented a series of photo-realistic drawings documenting suburban shopping malls in New Zealand.{{Cite web |url=https://melanierogergallery.com/media/media/files/2012_09/RUTH_CLELAND__Mall_2010.pdf |title=Ruth Cleland: Mall |website=Melanie Roger Gallery |year=2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://enjoy.org.nz/mall|title=Mall |website=Enjoy Contemporary Art Space |access-date=2020-04-16}}
• Sunny Days (2006) at Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin.{{Cite web|url=http://www.blueoyster.org.nz/exhibitions/ruth-cleland/|title=Ruth Cleland - Blue Oyster Art Project Space|website=www.blueoyster.org.nz|access-date=2020-04-16}}
• Saunter (2002) at Hocken Library, Dunedin.{{Cite journal|last=Fusco|first=Cassandra|date=2002|title=Ruth Cleland at Hocken Library|journal=Asian Art News|page=113}}

• 2014 Highly commended finalist in the Wellington-based Parkin Drawing Prize for 2014, for her work Parking Building Detail with Grid.{{Cite web|url=https://parkinprize.nz/2014%20judges%20report|title=2014 Judges Report|author=Gregory O’Brien |website=Parkin Prize|language=en-NZ|access-date=2020-04-16}}
• 2008 Park Lane Wallace Trust Development Award for her work Level 2. Cleland won a three month-long residency at the Vermont Studio Centre.{{Cite web|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/lewer-takes-top-art-award|title=Lewer takes top art award|last=Benson|first=Nigel|date=2008-09-02|website=Otago Daily Times |language=en|access-date=2020-04-16}}
• 2004 Merit Award, National Drawing Award, Artspace, Auckland, and Physics Room, Christchurch{{Cite web|url=http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/exhibitions/national-drawing-award|title=National Drawing Award |website=The Physics Room |access-date=2020-04-16}}
• 2003 First Prize, Waikato National Art Award, Hamilton{{Cite web|title=Waikato Society of Arts - images/gallery/awardshistory/|url=http://www.wsa.org.nz/summer_art_award.aspx|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716025309/http://wsa.org.nz/summer_art_award.aspx|archive-date=2006-07-16|access-date=2020-04-16|website=www.wsa.org.nz}}
• 2001 First Prize, Cranleigh Barton National Drawing Award, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
• Graeme Edwards Master of Fine Arts Scholarship, Dunedin School of Art

{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleland, Ruth}}

Category:Living people

Category:1976 births

Category:New Zealand women artists