About the Artist

Ruby Clulow is a Toronto-based visual artist known for their distinctive ornamentalist style of oil painting, which incorporates fibers and textiles. Blending contemporary and traditional elements, Clulow combines ornamental techniques often with classical depictions of the nude, creating intricate, textile-inspired works. Their art is deeply influenced by personal experiences with sexuality with a heavy focus in mental health and spiritual growth, often explored through the lens of ornament and traditional pattern making.

Cultural identity plays a key role in Clulow’s work, with motifs inspired by the artist’s Romanian, Hungarian, and Trinidadian heritage. These patterns tell stories through identity, using ornament to connect cultural symbolism with personal reflection. Their art is both technically precise and emotionally layered, built through a process of careful, labour-intensive layering of pigment and material. The subject of many of their pieces is the ornament itself, allowing the pattern its own space for recognition. Clulow strives to bring forth a segment of fine art that is almost always reserved for the background of a composition.