Summer Artist Talk: Rebecca Rutstein

The artist behind the newest exhibit Fault Lines discusses her work and her inspiration.

When your painting studio is set adrift on the open sea, things can get a little messy. Philadelphia-based painter Rebecca Rutstein spent her last three artist residencies in close quarters with oceanographic cartographers, examining never-before-seen images of the ocean floor and translating what she learned into undulating, semi-abstract paintings. She grew accustomed to the constant motion of the boat and its unpredictable effect on her brushstrokes.

In Fault Lines, her first-ever solo exhibition in New Mexico, Rutstein returns to dry land. Using the sunburnt palette of the high desert, the artist turns her attention to seismic events that occur deep in the Earth’s crust—and employs some tricks she learned at sea to imbue her compositions with dynamic motion.

Rutstein will conduct an artist talk at form & concept on Saturday, July 1 from 2-3 pm. Fault Lines opens at form & concept on Friday, June 30, 5-7 pm, and runs through August 12, 2017.