This portrait of the artist was a work product created by an employee of Sterling Ruby Studio.
Sterling Ruby
PainterSculptorCeramicistMixed MediaKnown for:
Monumental spray-paint canvases, large-scale ceramics with vivid glazes, poured urethane sculptures, and textile collages
Education:
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design (1996); School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA, 2002); ArtCenter College of Design (MFA, 2005)
Sterling Ruby is an American artist born in 1972 on a military base in Bitburg, Germany, to an American father and a Dutch mother. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where early exposure to Amish quilt-making and Pennsylvania redware pottery shaped his interest in craft traditions. Ruby works across a wide range of media, including spray-paint canvases, glazed ceramics, poured polyurethane sculptures, textile collages, and video, often presented in densely packed installations. He operates a 120,000-square-foot studio complex in Vernon, Los Angeles, with specialized departments for each medium, including three car kilns for his monumental ceramics.
Sterling Ruby's Gear List(4)
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Connection note
His SP series canvases are made entirely with spray paint, using dozens of cans per work. Spray paint is one of his primary mediums.
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Product description
Acrylic paint — pigment suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion — dries quickly to a water-resistant finish and can be thinned with water or medium. Introduced commercially in the 1950s, it became the dominant alternative to oil paint for contemporary painters working in flat color, mixed media, and large-scale formats.
Connection note
Acrylic listed among his painting materials by Gagosian Gallery.
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Last updated March 22, 2026
