RUBY NILSSON
Ruby Nilsson (SE, b. 1993) is an artist and writer whose work explores how sex is staged through aesthetics of enmity. Across several works, transsexualism functions as an interface of sexual liminality through which hatred, antagonism, and hostility reach their most absurd expression. As a recurring visual strategy, Nilsson employs the black box as both a site and a source of theatricality, emphasizing how sex is shaped by speculation, fiction, myth, and conspiracy.
Nilsson’s work spans performance, video installation, curation, and writing. Her projects unfold as extended series of intricate worldbuilding that together operate as closed systems of investigation, often expanding and evolving with each new installment.
Deeply influenced by her initial training in philosophy, her practice is marked by a strong engagement with text, voice, and orality, particularly the complex language models and vernacular worlds that trans and queer people create as forms of survival and community-making. Inspired by and intertwined with these nano-cultures of trans and queer language, her work heightens the visceral, morbid, and witty styles and tonalities they produce as tools of endurance.
Recent projects include the host-assisted solo exhibition RESPAWN, presented at Inkonst (Malmö), and the ongoing performance project and curatorial initiative Center of Unseen Trans Survival (C.U.T.S.) (2025), presented at My Wild Flag (Stockholm) and Warehouse9 (Copenhagen). Her work has also been shown at institutions and venues including Göteborgs Konsthall (Göteborg), Norbergfestival (Norberg), Turteatern (Stockholm), Skånes Konstförening (Malmö), Konsthall C (Stockholm), Rewild (Copenhagen), and Fylkingen (Stockholm).
Nilsson holds an MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in journals including Bastard and Paletten Art Journal.
Nilsson’s work spans performance, video installation, curation, and writing. Her projects unfold as extended series of intricate worldbuilding that together operate as closed systems of investigation, often expanding and evolving with each new installment.
Deeply influenced by her initial training in philosophy, her practice is marked by a strong engagement with text, voice, and orality, particularly the complex language models and vernacular worlds that trans and queer people create as forms of survival and community-making. Inspired by and intertwined with these nano-cultures of trans and queer language, her work heightens the visceral, morbid, and witty styles and tonalities they produce as tools of endurance.
Recent projects include the host-assisted solo exhibition RESPAWN, presented at Inkonst (Malmö), and the ongoing performance project and curatorial initiative Center of Unseen Trans Survival (C.U.T.S.) (2025), presented at My Wild Flag (Stockholm) and Warehouse9 (Copenhagen). Her work has also been shown at institutions and venues including Göteborgs Konsthall (Göteborg), Norbergfestival (Norberg), Turteatern (Stockholm), Skånes Konstförening (Malmö), Konsthall C (Stockholm), Rewild (Copenhagen), and Fylkingen (Stockholm).
Nilsson holds an MFA from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in journals including Bastard and Paletten Art Journal.