Sophie Ruigrok

Sophie Ruigrok (b. 1992, London) lives and works in London. Rich with archetypal symbolism, art historical reference, allusions to the artist’s personal life and rooted in Jungian psyschonalysis, Ruigrok’s practice explores how the spiritual and the everyday both reflect and rub up against each other. The constellation of images she offers for this exhibition interrogates the idea of the self; how identity is both concealed and revealed. The shape-shifting symbol of the mask recurs; in Waitin for you (part 5), it lays nestled in the palm of a hand, in Learnt Behaviours on a finger as a ring and in Relax your earth body amongst soft velvet. The tears that roll down the mask’s face are a recurring motif in Ruigrok’s work, symbolic for the exchange between the inner and outer world, where immaterial emotion becomes material. You may find yourself in a period of deep personal development and growth references a specific gesture signifying ‘I swear it’s true’, as well as taking this temporary loss of sight as a symbol for transformation - an ability to move from one mode of ‘seeing’ to another - and the turn to a more introspective mode. Ruigrok completed a postgraduate diploma in Drawing at the Royal Drawing School in 2019, and was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020, exhibiting at the South London Gallery in 2021. Her first solo exhibition today I feel relevant and alive was held at The Sunday Painter (London, 2022). Recent exhibitions include It is Better to be Cats than be Loved, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2022); Love is the Devil: Studies after Francis Bacon, Marlborough (London, 2022); A Grain of Sand, The Sunday Painter (London, 2021). Sophie has been awarded an artist’s residency in Borgo Pignano (Tuscany, Italy) in September 2022. ...

Tabula Rasa Gallery is based in Beijing's 798 art district. Established in 2015, it aims to promote both Chinese and international contemporary artists through exhibitions, talks, research and publication. The gallery name is Latin for 'blank state'. In philosophical discourse, it refers to the idea that our knowledge comes from our experiences and education, all participants are born in a Tabula Rasa state. Tabula Rasa hopes that the exhibitions they present can subvert viewers’ preconceptions, creating conditions for fresh artistic experiments.