Industrial Whispers: Pipe

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 6ft x 5ft
Creation Date: 2024
Collection: Black and White

“Between silence and motion, 'Pipe' invites surrender—art as presence, pulse, and possibility.”

Pipe (2024) is a visual pun and a philosophical wink. This 72 x 60 inch mixed media painting from the Black and White Collection is an homage to objects and ideas — specifically, the tension between what we see and what we know. Inspired by Magritte’s famous “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” my Pipe is both a reference and a rupture.

The central form — vaguely tubular, curved, incomplete — hovers against a distressed monochrome background. Made from black acrylic, charcoal, and matte gray sand textures, the surface crackles with quiet tension. The pipe is not clearly drawn. It is implied, interrupted, resisting definition.

I created this piece while reflecting on semiotics — how symbols acquire power, and how quickly they slip. The pipe here isn’t about smoking. It’s about meaning, memory, and the body — how we construct and undo understanding.

This work echoes the conceptual spirit of Marcel Broodthaers and the minimal unease of Robert Morris. It doesn’t resolve. It provokes.

Pipe doesn’t ask if it is or isn’t. It asks: why do we keep asking?

Ritu Raj | Contemporary Abstract Artist | Phoenix

After 30 years as an executive and entrepreneur, I returned to painting full-time to explore what words and strategy couldn’t hold. I create bold, expressive abstract art to shift how we see and feel—opening space for reflection, connection, and quiet transformation. For me, change begins not with certainty, but with listening.

https://www.rituart.com/
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