Mediations disguised as paintings by Ruth Chase
August 13 – October 29
Opening Reception: September 3, 6-8PM
Artist Talk: TBD
Galerie Tangerine
900 King Hollands Avenue, Ste. 104, Nashville, TN (615) 553-6868
Unbreakable Light is a solo exhibition of paintings, “Light Keepers” and video by Ruth Chase, showcasing her newest and most recent work, all of it driven by her deepening fascination with light: its mystery, its science, and its role as a sustaining life force. The more Chase researched and questioned, the more inscrutable the concept of light appeared. Though present in every culture, every religion and every personal experience, its presence defies rudimentary explanation. Rather than resolve the conundrum of light and its ever-present properties, Chase’s work moves around and through it, vacillating between the visible and the invisible, the known and the sensed.
Her vintage photographs, woven throughout this fresh body of work, serve as an understated bridge between past and present, evoking enduring questions about the human perception of time and the possibility that the spirits and souls of those who came before us continue to walk alongside us today.
Threaded throughout Chase’s current work is a symbolic presence that includes the “Light Body,” a recurring, simplified figure that emerged in her earlier work and has moved ahead in this series, as well. It seems to have presented itself here as a companion, a spirit guide or as an ancestral presence. The exhibition is also accompanied by a collection of Chase’s “Light Keepers,” a cohort of carved wall sculptures that serve as elegant repositories for found objects, personal treasures, and cherished memories.
Unbreakable Light began with a series of unwritten questions, the two most important being: What keeps us going? What remains unbroken? While the works do not necessarily resolve that all-important question, they do look for potential answers by returning to the question, repeatedly, using paint, image, and light itself.
Mary Mary Quite Contrary, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24″
The Only Place You Belong Is In The Moment, acrylic, wax on canvas, 18 x 18″
The figures embody endurance across generations, proposing that what feels like cultural fracture may instead be part of a longer arc of becoming. Light becomes a symbol of inherited resilience.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, acrylic, oil, light on mirror, 33 x 27″
Video
3 min, 2026
Audio recorded interviews layered with photographic and video collage.
1 min Video, 2024
Art taken from Unearthed painting by Ruth Chase
AUDIO: Windchimes and birds from my backyard in Tennessee.Sounds of the Earth – 24 Hours of Earth and Human-Generated Vibrations During the Lockdown, Dublin by David Stalling
A place for the small wonders you find in the field
“You don’t become unstoppable by following the crowd” — Tim Grover.
ARTIST STATEMENT
When the world gets weird, I retreat to my studio, spend time in nature and work it out with paint.
I have become obsessed with light, science and consciousness, pulling on the thread and following it wherever it takes me. I spend a lot of time with my feet in the dirt and my face toward the sun. Gosh, light is so damn mysterious. No wonder our ancestors paid such close attention to it.
I’ve been returning to old photographs, some of which I have lived with for decades. Maybe I’m looking for traces of what they knew as an anchor in such strange times.
At one point, a shape revealed itself to me as a Light Body. You’ll see it repeated throughout the work as a simple outline, present as a companion and witness. Sometimes I experience it as ancestral, sometimes angelic. Whatever it is, it reminds me that we are in a relationship with forms of light that are not always visible. So I give you these paintings, Light Keepers and video to experience through your own perception. A record of what I’ve been noticing. A collection of meditations disguised as art.
The Light Body is a recurring simplified form that appears throughout Ruth Chase’s paintings, symbolizing a companion, guide, or ancestral presence. The exhibition includes a collection of Light Keepers, each one unique, carved wall sculptures that serve as repositories for found objects, personal treasures, and cherished memories.
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