Sterling Ruby's Stoves series represents a fascinating intersection between functionality and art, challenging traditional boundaries and engaging with both autobiographical elements and broader conceptual themes. Introduced around 2012, the series includes functional, wood-burning stoves that Ruby has constructed, inspired by makeshift stoves he observed in China, used by foundry workers for warmth. These creations juxtapose industrial materials against the natural environment, highlighting themes of waste, consumption, and the transformational power of fire. Ruby's stoves, while operational, are noted for their aesthetic appeal rather than efficiency, blending the artist's admiration for their makeshift beauty with his critique of art's utility and purpose​ (Phaidon)​.

Ruby's exploration of the stove as an art object reflects on his personal history growing up on a farm in Pennsylvania, where a wood-burning stove was a primary heat source. This personal connection extends into a deeper contemplation of fire's symbolic and physical transformational properties, questioning the essence of consumption and renewal within both a personal and broader environmental context​ (Vito Schnabel)​.

The series has been exhibited in various settings, from public squares in Basel, Switzerland, as part of Art Basel's Parcours, to the 2015 Gwangju Biennial in Korea, and in the courtyard of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, France. Each installation highlighted the stoves' dual nature as both art objects and functional items, reinforcing Ruby's ongoing investigation into the intersections of art, life, and transformation​ (Wikipedia)​.

Moreover, the exhibition of the Stoves series at Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz further exemplified Ruby's intention to create art that resides in the liminal spaces between utilitarian object and conceptual art form. By situating the stoves within a garden, Ruby not only alludes to their functional origins but also transforms them into allegorical forms, contemplating the acts of burning and transformation as metaphors for broader ecological and personal cycles of change and renewal​ (Vito Schnabel)​.

Through the Stoves series, Ruby continues to expand his multidisciplinary practice, challenging viewers to reconsider the boundaries between art and object, the ephemeral and the enduring, and the personal and the universal.