Gracelee Lawrence
Ruby Palmer
giving me life
February 8–March 23, 2025
Opening reception Saturday, February 8, 2025, 3–5 PM
Hot off the heels of Imbolc, the Celtic celebration of the first new stirrings of Spring, TURLEY presents giving me life. Ruby Palmer displays floral drawings born from a personal winter, while Gracelee Lawrence’s 3D-printed sculptures reimagine insects as luminous adornments. Together these colorful works invoke a yearning for brighter, warmer days ahead.
Gracelee Lawrence, a growing collection of desire and insight, 2024, 3D printed semeichristiline polymer, 3D printed photopolymer, pigment, 24 x 40 x 12 inches
Gracelee Lawrence
“My work explores the intersection of digital fabrication and hand augmentation, occupying the fluid space where physical and digital realities merge. Through 3D scanning, software manipulation, and the integration of edible plants, my sculptures investigate the shifting boundaries between technology, the body, and biology. By using 3D printer filament derived from GMO corn, I engage with the ecological and ethical complexities of bioplastics, challenging sustainability narratives and exposing the environmental consequences of industrial agriculture. Rooted in both digital and physical realms, my sculptures reflect on our evolving perception of reality while remaining grounded in materiality.”
Gracelee Lawrence, from the lobe of the lung, 2024, 3D printed semicrystalline polymer, 3D printed photopolymer, pigment, 30 x 30 x 11 inches
Gracelee Lawrence (they/she) has attended twenty residencies in the US and abroad and opened her second solo show in New York at Postmasters in June 2022 with a glowing review by Roberta Smith in the New York Times. They are the Head of the Sculpture Area at the University at Albany, SUNY. Recent exhibitions include Peter Gaugy (Vienna, Austria), PRIOR Art Space (Barcelona, Spain), Patrick Mikhail (Montreal, CA), Kavi Gupta (Chicago, IL), CHART (New York, NY), and more. They have installed large-scale outdoor sculptures at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, Connecticut), Wave Hill (Bronx, NY), Museum of Museums (Seattle, WA), Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, MN), Mary Sky (Hancock, VT), and others. In 2017 they returned from 15 months as a Visiting Professor in the Multidisciplinary Department of Art at Chiang Mai University and assistant to artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook on a Luce Scholars Fellowship. They are a member of the collective MATERIAL GIRLS, a recipient of the 2024 Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Leave, a 2021-22 Individual Artist DEC Grant, a 2019 Jerome Fellow at Franconia Sculpture Park, a 2016-17 Luce Scholars Fellow, and a recipient of the 2015 UMLAUF Prize. Press for their work includes The New York Times, The New Yorker, ArtNet, Hyperallergic, Artspace, The Creative Independent, and MAAKE Magazine, among others. They are an enthusiastic dancer, a lifelong horse person, and a passionate gardener.
Ruby Palmer, Orange Flowers, 2024, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 18 x 13.5 x 1 inches
Ruby Palmer
I began painting images of flowers and vines in 2012, the spring after I finished 7 months of a harsh chemotherapy regimen for cancer. It felt miraculous to be reviving and making work again, as signs of spring also appeared.
The flowers have always been made up, though I’m remembering impressions from gardens I see, or from what I’m drawn to when I walk. I’m excited by the options of invention, and by scaling the imagery up for a more physical effect. Oversized, bursting forth, beating out demons. Creating my own eco-system and logic. Is it possible to make a good painting of something that has been so often explored, that is a subject so commonly loved?
The recent work got an injection of fresh life with the discovery of some traditionally decorative brushwork. Using wide flat brushes loaded up with two or more different colors, I am able to vary the colors of the form in a single movement. This has opened up new possibilities for creating dimension, vibration, and beauty.
Each year I think I’m kind of done with the series and then spring and summer arrive and I start painting them again. The bulbs have rested all winter and also return. The cancer has not come back, thankfully. I often wonder if the flowers are a reminder to take care of myself.
Ruby Palmer, Winter Garden, 2024, Flashe, acrylic, and acrylagouache on prepared canvas, 48 x 40 x 1 inches
Ruby Palmer’s (b. 1969, Boston MA) work includes work on paper, painting, sculpture, installation, and wood constructions.
She received a BA in Painting and Drawing at Hampshire College (1988-92). She started experimenting with sculpture and installation in 1998 at the School of Visual Arts (MFA 2000) as a way to work larger and directly with the architecture of the room. In 1999 she was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors.
Ruby is currently working on a 450 square foot wall sculpture commissioned by Southwest Air for display at the Albany International Airport (completion date March 2025). During summer 2024, she showed work at Onna House in East Hampton, NY. She has exhibited work at Morgan Lehman Gallery in NYC (2004, 2014, 2021, 2023). Palmer exhibited work at Verse Workshop in Red Hook, NY, in 2023. In 2022, she exhibited a site-specific installation at Turley Gallery in Hudson, NY. Her work was included in the Mohawk Regional Juried Exhibition at Opalka Gallery 2021, and she was awarded the Chet and Karen Opalka Award. Her work has been shown at the Albany International Airport, Opalka Gallery, Woodstock Byrdcliff Guild, LABspace, The Foundation Gallery at Columbia-Greene Community College, Jeff Bailey Gallery, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, Page Bond Gallery, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Instar Lodge, Smack Mellon, Exit Art, and Kendall Art and Design, among others.
Ruby was interviewed by Art Spiel in 2023, and her work has been discussed in reviews by The Albany Times Union, Daily Gazette (Albany), House Beautiful, Roll Magazine, and ArtForum. One of her site-specific installations was featured in the NY Times.
Her work is in many private collections as well as the corporate collections of Fidelity Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Capital Group.
From 2016-2020, Ruby ran ARTalks, an artist lecture series held at the local library in Rhinecliff, NY, which featured two contemporary Hudson Valley-based artists presenting their work. Ruby has lived in Rhinecliff, NY since 2010 with her husband and twin daughters. Her studio is nearby in Red Hook, NY.
Installation photography by Spencer House Studio