Originally from Hamden, CT, Dean Ruck has lived and worked in Houston since 1987. The artist works in all mediums, creating large and small sculptures, ambitious installations, and unconventional two-dimensional “drawings.” His work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the City of Houston, Cranbrook Art Museum, and numerous private collections. As a truly multi-media artist his work follows these premises:
Work externally - be involved with the earth, time, space, light, and materials, not the self.
Work intelligently and intuitively - consider the circumstances of the project and trust your instincts and skill.
Be cognizant of the symbiotic and essential relationship between the audience and the art.
Use the full gamut of the sensory experience as materials.
Work / Labor / Explore - discovery and process is the catapult to affirmation and meaning.
Ruck is also half of the internationally recognized collaborative team Havel Ruck Projects (HRP) with Dan Havel.
“Havel Ruck Projects is the epitome of public art and place-making in the 21st Century. Their projects ask questions about stories of place, histories, and communities, rather than simply offering answers. In an environment where architecture is being torn down as quickly as it is put up, Havel Ruck Projects’ extraordinary installations bring back to life the cultural and/or historical characteristics of a community, which are being lost at an alarming rate. Their projects challenge the unforgiving nature of urban development, as well as inspire a new generation of artists to engage with Houston’s history and make public art that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
- Jennifer Ash, Executive Director, Art League Houston
