Ruby Rumie

ELENA

2016

Ruby Rumié’s work includes painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation. She develops projects based on injustice and psychology, and the impact of modern life in the daily lives of common people. Rumié focuses her research on the locals of Getsemaní, a historical neighborhood of Cartagena de Indias, where she lives. Getsemaní is where she finds her conceptual material, analyzing the impact of gentrification and progress, and suggesting a new role for the artist: that in which there is not only an aesthetic and poetic revelation, but also a search of how to manage social and psychological problems through creation. Rumié began using the technique of hyperrealism painting to present portraits of the inhabitants of Cartagena. She later incorporated social and territorial heritage, questioning the compromise of the artist with society. She implements various tools in her projects such as cartography, census and archival techniques, half way between the final and aesthetic creation, as well as community work and sociological research. Following this path, she recently created the project Hálito Divino (Divine Breath), in which she focused on giving a social and creative voice to women who suffered from domestic violence. Ruby Rumié was born in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 1958. She lives and works between Cartagena and Santiago, Chile. She studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts of Cartagena de Indias, the David Manzur Academy in Bogotá and has participated in several workshops with artists such as Maria Teresa Hincapié, Eugenio Dittborn, Fabián Rendón and Jean Pierre Accoult. She has held exhibitions in Bogotá, Barranquilla, and Cartagena, Colombia; Santiago, Valparíso and Temuco, Chile; Miami, New York, and Washington D.C., USA; Rouen and Paris, France. She recently participated in the international section of the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.