Emily Moores: Wild Whimsy
August 23 - October 15, 2021
Opening reception: August 27, 2021, 5:30 PM
An immersive installation adorned with colorful handmade textures and patterns; Wild Whimsy is a celebration of play. Using richly colored, large-scale sheets of paper, and hand cut patterns across space, Moores engages both the mind and body.
“When we look at play as a form of reducing stress and improving our memory, it’s something that’s really valuable on multiple levels.”
Temporality is centerfold to Moores’ installation. Rather than planning each detail beforehand, Moores let the space in Ruffin guide her, like a live drawing or a painting: “I think especially now where a lot of artwork is viewed online, installation brings a unique experience because it’s not something that can be fully captured in a photograph; you have to physically walk through the space and experience it. For me the temporary nature of the exhibition brings viewers into the space.”
The environment of bright blues, reds, and yellows and rich handmade textures invites movement and an engagement of the senses in the exhibition space. Wild Whimsy is on display in the Ruffin Gallery from August 21 to October 15. Wild Whimsy is the first exhibition in the Ruffin Gallery’s new Exhibition Proposal Program.
About the artist:
Emily Moores is a visual artist living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her work consists of hand-cut and ornately layered materials, which create both wall works and large-scale installations. Emily’s work investigates the playful engagement of the body as essential to understanding and experiencing spaces or objects. Emily was selected as one of the Women to Watch 2020 by the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in collaboration with the Ohio Advisory Group of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She created ‘Let’s Celebrate,’ a large scale installation consisting of wood, paper and fabric.Emily has shown her work regionally and nationally, including the Contemporary Arts Center (OH), the Riffe Gallery (OH), the Loudon House (KY), and the Dougherty Arts Center (TX). Emily Moores was a recipient of the Ohio Cultural Arts Individual Artist Award, the Summerfair Individual Artist Grant and the ArtPrize Seed Grant.