SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023- All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (solo exhibit), Studio 34, Philadelphia PA
2022- Where Will We Be Held?, video installation series, Suzuki Piano Academy, Philadelphia PA
2021- Collective Communities: Actions on Environmental Crises, Weinberg/Newton Gallery, Chicago IL
2020- Feast and Famine, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers, Newark NJ
2019- Friends, Peace and Sanctuary, variously exhibited at Swarthmore University, City Hall, 12 Gates Gallery,
Philadelphia, PA and Booklyn, NYC
Site/Sound, public audio-visual art festival in various outdoor locations, presented by Mural Arts and
the American Composer's Forum, collaborative installations with composer Rosie Langabeer
2018- Salamander Mask, Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, PA
Marx@200, SPACE, Pittsburgh, PA
2017- Hakim’s Tale, Eastern State Penitentiary (collaborative installation with Gelsey Bell), Philadelphia, PA
Commonwealth: Water for All, Queens Museum, NY
2016- Worlds Reverse, Gallery 1816, Philadelphia, PA (solo exhibit)
2015- You Can Color Outside the Lines: The Work of Tim Kerr and Friends, Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, AL
Gathering Autonomy: Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, Arlene & Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design,
PNCA, Portland, OR
2014- Artists of the R-Line, City Hall, Providence, RI
An Other World, World’s Fair/Machines With Magnets, Pawtucket, RI (solo installation)
Manif d’Art 7: Québec Biennale, Atelier Engramme, Quebec City, QC, Canada
Uprisings: Images of Labor & Migration, SKETCH, Toronto, ON, Canada
2013- Agora: the 4th Annual Athens Biennale, Former Athens Stock Exchange, Athens, Greece (as part of
the Never the Same archive)
The Message is the Medium: Prints, Propaganda, and Persuasion, Zeitgeist Gallery, Lowell, MA
Unsocial Sociability, Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt, Austria
Uprisings, Union Art Gallery, University Of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
2012- Agit-Prop and Interventions, Neurotitan Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Celebrate People’s History, Irregular Rhythm Asylum, Tokyo, Japan
Undocunation 2012, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Witches & Mad Prophets, Machines With Magnets, Pawtucket, RI (also curated)
2011- Refuge, Galerija Alkatraz, Ljubljana, Slovenia (prize-winner’s exhibition, 29th Slovenian Biennial of the Graphic Arts)
Pittsburgh Biennial 2011, Miller Gallery at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA
Staring at the Cracks, 4212 Chestnut, Philadelphia PA (collaborative installation w/ Brett Story & Daniel Blacksberg)
For the Sake of Future Days, 40th street AIR Project, Philadelphia PA (solo installation)
War Is Trauma, Booklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2010- Bring Down the Walls!-A Month of Radical Art and Educational Events, A-Space and Studio 34,
Philadelphia PA (an Independent Project of Philagrafika)
JUST SEEDS Cooperativa de Resistencia Visual, Z.A.M., Mexico City, Mexico
Operation Exposure, Mess Hall, Chicago, IL
2009- Art as Action, Printmaking Council of New Jersey, Sommerville NJ
Liberation!, Dirt Palace, Providence RI (solo installation)
28th Biennial of Graphic Arts, International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Confronting the Capitalist Crisis, Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, Tuscon AZ
Which Side Are You On?, Union Art Gallery, University Of Wisconsin, Milwaukee WI
2008- Out Of the Shell of the Old, Space 1026, Philadelphia PA
Ides of March, Biennial building-wide installation, ABC No Rio, NYC
Great Small Works’ Temporary Toy Theater Museum, St. Ann’s Warehouse, NYC
Sustainable, AS220, Providence RI
2006- The Earth from Above, Soap Factory, Minneapolis MN
If They Come For You In the Morning, ABC No Rio, New York NY
Rude Awakenings: New Work by Erik Ruin & Meredith Stern, Art of This Gallery, Minneapolis MN
2005- Paper Politics- Seattle, Phinney Community Center, Seattle WA
2004- The Interventionists- Art In The Social Sphere, (as part of God Bless Graffiti Coalition installation), MASS
MoCA, North Adams MA
Peace Signs: Posters Of The Anti-War Movement. Chisholm Gallery, New York NY
Stencils by Erik Ruin, (solo show), Vestibule Gallery, Detroit MI
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2022- Tierkries LA, Ivy Substation Theater, Culver City LA- created and performed projections for this re-
interpretation of Stockhausen’s song-cycle. Comissioned/presented by Synchromy
High Zero Festival (forthcoming), Baltimore MD
2019- Middle of Nowhere festival, Whitesbog Village, NJ
2017- Long/Gone, the Rotunda, Philadelphia PA. 100 feet of intricately cut paper projected to live accompaniment
by a ten-piece musical ensemble. European tour in April of 2018, including a featured spot at the SOTU
Festival in Amsterdam,
2016- Antigone, Panorama Artist Collective, Philadelphia PA. I co-directed and designed projections for this
experimental production inspired by Anne Carson’s Antigonick.
Play Death More Sweetly, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA. I initiated and designed and performed
projections for this collaboration with dancer Asimina Chremos and my musical ensemble the Ominous Cloud
Ensemble, based on Paul Celan’s poem Todesfuge.
10,000 Things, Wilbury Theater, Providence, RI. I designed projections for this original play by Erik Ehn.
2015- Prisoner’s Song, Roulette Intermedia, Brooklyn NY. I co-created and performed this original performance for
voice and projections, in collaboration with vocalist/composer Gelsey Bell and director Rick Burkhardt.
2014- Boundless: A Collaborative Work of Epic Theater, Summer St. Theater, Providence, RI. I initiated, produced,
designed sets and projections for and co-directed (with Sarah Lowry of the Missoula Oblongata) this ambitious
production with a cast of over 40 performers.
2013- One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin, a silk-screened toy-theater show based on Rebecca Solnit’s
A Paradise Built In Hell, co-created and performed with Maryann Colella (Bread & Puppet). Regional tour
with featured stop at Great Small Works' Tenth International Toy Theater Festival, St. Ann’s Warehouse,
NYC.
2009- King Lear, co-directed and created projection sequences for an act of Shakespeare’s King Lear, in a 5 company
production, alongside Bedlam Theater (Minneapolis MN), the Nonsense Company (Madison WI), Trutheater
Theater (Providence RI), and Insurgent Theater (Milwaukee WI). Performances in Philadelphia and
Minneapolis.
2008- Cardboard, Shadows, Sheets & Suitcases,, shadow performance with live musical accompaniment, Institute for
Contemporary Art, Philadelphia PA.
Flight: The Mythic Journey of a Person Displaced, touring projection-based shadow performance, with live
score by violinist Katt Hernandez, toured throughout the eastern U.S., with over 15 performances.
2007- The Nothing Factory: A Musical Shadow Theater Extravaganza, co-directed, created sets & shadow imagery
for this feature-length avant-punk musical. Debuted September 28th at the Rotunda, Philadelphia PA.
Productions in Baltimore and NYC.
Mad Dogs & Fighting Men, created & performed shadow sequences for this St. Patrick’s Day event based on
the writing of James Stephens at the Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, MN. Event sponsored by Minnesota Public
Radio.
2006- The Uninvited Guest: Barebones Productions’ 13th annual Halloween Extravaganza, designed, created &
directed shadow sequences for this large outdoor Halloween theatrical production, Hidden Falls Park, St. Paul
MN.
SeamsLike, shadow theater piece exploring “revelation as rupture” with original music by Minneapolis
accordion/saw duo Dreamland Faces, featured performance at annual Black Sheep Puppet Festival, Pittsburgh
2004- Olive on the Seder Plate- created scenes for projection in this performance by the Liberty Cabbage Theater
concerning issues around Judaism and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Toured nationally.
SELECTED COLLABORATIONS
Ominous Cloud Ensemble- An ongoing collectively improvising audio-visual ensemble that incorporates a rotating cast of musicians, including members of Sun Ra Arkestra, Chris Forsyth’s Solar Motel Band, Bardo Pond and more.
Summer Street Dinner Theater- I curated this ongoing series of artisanal dinners and programs of original interdisciplinary performances at my home/studio Summer Street Theater from 2014-15.
Neighbor Ballads- Collaborated with poet Frank Sherlock & the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program to create a series of seven illustrated broadsides celebrating immigrant elders/ancestors in South Philadelphia. The broadsides were distributed on the street via decorated honor boxes. April-June 2011.
Justseeds Visual Resistance Artist’s Cooperative- Founding member of this national cooperative of politically- and socially-engaged printmakers. 2006- present. www.justseeds.org. Lead coordinator of several collective projects.
Street Art Workers- Organizer and artist with this collective that produces, disseminates, and places political art throughout the world. 2003-present. www.streetartworkers.org
Barebones Productions- Worked as director of shadow puppetry for this theatrical collective producing large community-based outdoor Halloween events, with nightly attendance upwards of 2000. from 2005-2006.
Prison Poster Project- Worked as organizer & designer with this collective of artists & activists working in collaboration with prisoners across the U.S to create a large-scale portable mural as a public education tool to discuss how the prison industrial complex affects communities. 2002- 2007.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Paths Toward Utopia, co-author with Cindy Milstein, PM Press, November 2012
Realizing The Impossible: Art Vs. Authority, co-editor with Josh MacPhee, AK Press, February 2007
All The Days After: Critical Voices in Poetry & Artwork, as a member of the Upsidedown Culture Collective, pub.2002
SELECTED PRESS
2019- Dabenaugh, Wendy, “Reading Railroad brought back to life with Site/Sound: Revealing the Rail Park”, ABC6 Action
News, October 6, 2019
2017- Bury, Louis, “The Contested Histories of Water”, Hyperallergic, June 24, 2017
Brady, Shaun, “Storybook art unraveled from a single cut of paper in 'Long/Gone’ ”, Philly Voice, June 14, 2017
2016- Brady, Shaun, “Dancer Asimina Chremos and visual artist Erik Ruin put their heads together for 'Play Death
More Sweetly”, Philly Voice, July 19, 2016
Brady, Shaun, “Performance piece at Rotunda explores song's power for those behind bars”, Philadelphia
Inquirer, March 15, 2016
2015- da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna, “Review: ‘Prisoner’s Song’ Delves Into Creativity of Confinement”, New
York Times, October 15, 2015
Regan, Sheila, “Surrealist Leonora Carrington Inspires Shadow Puppet Opera,” Minneapolis City Pages, April
16, 2015
2014- Cook, Greg, “Aiming for Transcendence: Erik Ruin Creates Another World at Machines With Magnets”,
Providence Phoenix, February 5, 2014
2013- “Printmaking Radicalism: With the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative”, Briarpatch Magazine, July 1, 2013
2012- Eil, Philip, “Sketching Anarchy”, the Boston Phoenix, November 14, 2012
2011- Emmons, Amze, “Word On The Street (Art): Neighbor Ballads”, Printeresting,
2009- Regan, Margaret, “To Change the World”, Tucson Weekly, September 3, 2009
2008- Carroll, Jacob, “Justseeds Grow All Over 1026”, Philagrafika, July 25, 2008
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2022- Artist-In-Residence, St. Michael’s Printshop, St Johns, NL Canada
2018- Artist-In-Residence, MacDowell Colony
2017- Artist-In-Residence, Blue Mountain Center
2015- Project Grant for Individual Artist, Rhode Island State Council on the Art
United States Artists Fellowship (nomination)
2014- Project Grant for Individual Artist, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Art Matters fellowship (nomination)
2012- Artist-in-Residence, Climate of Change Focus Residency, Blue Mountain Center
2010- Artist-in-Residence, 40th street AIR, Philadelphia PA
2009- Grand Prix (awarded to Justseeds Cooperative), 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
AS220 Artist-in-Residence, Providence RI
2008- Puffin Foundation artists’ grant