Ralph Rucci: Messages from the Void, Part 2

Sorokko Gallery To Honor Fashion Designer and Artist Ralph Rucci

With Exclusive Exhibit of “Ralph Rucci:  Messages from the Void, Part 2”

Collection on Display at the San Francisco Gallery from May 24 through June 20, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (April 24, 2007) -- Serge Sorokko Gallery announced today that it will exhibit American haute couture designer and celebrated visual artist Ralph Rucci’s latest collection, “Ralph Rucci:  Messages from the Void, Part 2,” from May 24 through June 20, 2007.  This extraordinary 40-piece collection of paintings on canvas affords visitors a fascinating look into the complex and curious mind of the famed couturier.  Gallery owners Serge and Tatiana Sorokko will welcome Rucci to San Francisco and host a private reception in his honor at the Serge Sorokko Gallery on May 23 from 6 to 8 p.m.

“We are thrilled and honored once again to be the exclusive gallery for Ralph’s latest collection,” said Serge Sorokko.  “While he is internationally respected and sought after as a fashion designer, we are excited for this opportunity to bring attention to his extraordinary talent as a painter and artist.”

During his career as an internationally celebrated fashion designer, Rucci has developed fabrics with luxury mills throughout Europe, using advances in technology to create new textiles and by studying archives in order to revive historically important cloths.  This has been a significant force for him as an artist as his prints are based on his own artwork, which consists primarily of watercolors and acrylics.  He draws inspiration from art, as well, ranging from classic Renaissance works to those of contemporary artists such as Cy Twombly, Francis Bacon and Joseph Beuys. 

Rucci’s paintings and drawings synthesize his interest in both expressionist and minimalist tendencies of modernistic art.  His art, which often incorporates fabric, has been described as a distinctive Japanese-inspired aesthetic.  The results are often large-scale works that are simultaneously imposing and understated with a delicately defined and unmistakable presence.

For the man who said he’d be a psychiatrist if he wasn’t designing clothes, creating art -- or “channeling,” as he calls it -- is his preferred psychological release.  While he likens his artistic process and the catharsis of creation to a great therapy session, Rucci says that painting is different and purer than fashion design because he allows himself to be taken and fed into the canvas.  As he describes it, “I stand outside myself and let myself be a conduit.  The self outside myself taking dictation.  I become a participant and a voyeur.”