Arcana:

(RUBINS, NANCY). Nancy Rubins Studio, I00210515, 2021. 9 x 7 in., 20 pages. Saddle-Stitched. New/No Jacket - As Issued.

Words frequently used to describe American artist Nancy Rubins’s sculptural practice embody ideas of monumentality, fortitude, and awe-inspiring strength. While it is most certainly true that Rubins’s works result in formidable tours de force, evoking a wonderment about their seemingly impossible feats of construction, scale is often a means rather than a goal unto itself.

Meet Fizzy’s Nebuli, one of several new sculptures in the Fluid Space series. Standing approximately six-and-a-half feet high, eightand-a-half feet wide, and nine-and-a-half feet deep, this sculpture and those from Rubins’s newest series are, relative to her previous works, more petite. Fizzy’s Nebuli gives us permission for close and intimate viewing, inviting us to explore all of its elaborate details.

As our eye roves, biomorphic forms shift and appear before us, including calla-lily-like appendages, branches, hollowed out tree stumps, rosebuds, and ivy tendrils. These subtle gestures linger with us, even after those forms dissolve back into the sculptural whole. Inventory Number: I00210515