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Ruth Hardinger’s Exhibition at Mana Contemporary

'Transcending Fields' curated by Xiaokun Sunny Qiu is open for viewing at Mana Contemporary’s Jersey City campus.

Aug 1, 2021 · 2 Minute Read

Ruth Hardinger Exhibition

Mana Contemporary is the first institution in the United States to present a sweeping survey of works by Ruth Hardinger, whose New York-based practice spans some 50 years. Transcending Fields, comprising over 60 abstract sculptures, paintings, and works on paper, brings together the artist’s most definitive creations, many alluding to ancient sites, esoteric spiritual practices, and the universal human practice of making art for the sake of remembrance. Designed by guest curator Xiaokun Sunny Qiu, founder of ArtsRouge International in Shanghai.

Throughout her decades-long career, Hardinger has challenged the conventions of sculpture, yet honored all artists, regardless of culture or period, who share her drive to understand the world through its substances and forms, and who leave behind enduring signs of that vital engagement. Her choice of materials is essential to the dialectical themes in her work: permanence versus ephemerality, essence versus mutability, the known versus the unknowable. As the show’s guide sheet observes, “Her deft handling of ‘poor materials’—concrete, string, cardboard, graphite, rope, even dried foodstuff—suggests a kind of transubstantiation, an impulse to transcend the mundane, through artistry and evoke the eternal and sublime.” These impulses, and this remarkable body of work, are rendered particularly poignant by the artist’s current battle with clinically progressive memory loss.

The exhibit will run from May 24 through October 2, 2021 with visiting hours on Saturdays from 12 – 4pm ET and tours on Thursdays and Fridays at 3pm ET by appointment only.

Ruth Hardinger: Transcending Fields is organized by Xiaokun Sunny Qiu, C. Michael Norton, and Mana Contemporary in partnership with the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, and the Hardinger Family Trust.



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