Ginny Ruffner has long since been recognized worldwide as one of the major artists of the modern glass movement.  This exhibition introduces her monumental large-scaled metal & glass sculptures.  Ruffner’s menagerie of glass sculptures are imbued with a combination of technical mastery and startling whimsical shapes and figures.  Possessing extraordinary fine art skills, her uniquely narrative and sculptural pieces combine elements of painting, sculpture and art history.  While many artists shy away from beauty and decoration, Ruffner embraces it, “I feel like my purpose in life is to make beautiful things.”

Ruffner received both her M.F.A and B.F.A. in drawing and painting from the University of Georgia.  A recipient of an N.E.A. Fellowship, Ruffner’s earlier work uniquely merged the mediums of glassblowing and painting, culminating in her intricate, sculptural constructions.  In 1995, the book Why Not: The Art of Ginny Ruffner, with an introduction by Arthur Danto, was published by the Tacoma Art Museum in association with the University of Washington Press.  Creativity-the Flowering Tornado, a pop-up book, was published in conjunction with her 2003 solo exhibition at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL.  Her current sculptural work combines bronze and glass. Public collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland.

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WI
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, NY
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
High Art Museum, Atlanta, GA
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan
Hsinchu Cultural Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Huntington Museum, Huntington, WV
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Koganezaki Glass Museum, Kamomura, Japan
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Musée de Design et d'Arts Appliques/Contemporians, Lausanne, Switzerland
Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
Racine Art Museum, Racine WI
Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
MH de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA