Brie Ruais’ exhibition Unfolding: Performing Sculpture is an installation of performance-generated clay sculptures. This series of sculptures are the result of specific exercises: spreading out her body-weight in clay, throwing clay into a corner after Serra’s lead splashes, and sending a wet clay sculpture down river. Her ceramic work directly implicates the performative body in its form. Her work engages with the use of clay throughout the history of human civilization, specifically the persistence of vessel-like and figurative forms. Ruais’ work investigates sexuality, labor, and maintenance work, not in contrast to men, but in relation to the fluidity of women’s roles in society.

Brie Ruais was born in 1982, in Southern California. She received her BA from NYU in 2004 followed by an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in 2011. She lives and works in New York City.