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Ginny Ruffner (1952-) is a glass artist in Seattle, Washington. She is widely recognized for introducing the technique of lampworking to the field of glass art.^[1]

Life and Career[edit]

Ginny Ruffner was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned both her Bachelor of Fine Arts and her Master of Fine Arts in drawing and painting from the University of Georgia in 1974 and 1975 respectively. One of her first jobs was in a small shop as an apprentice lamp worker making small glass animals. As her skills grew, she bought her own equipment and started making her own work beginning with goblets with fantastically unique stems such as dragonflies, crocodiles, and radishes. In the early eighties, Ruffner moved to Seattle to join the growing glass community in the Pacific Northwest and teach at Pilchuck Glass School. ^[2]

In 1991, Ruffner was involved in a three-car collision that almost took her life. She was in a coma for five weeks. Doctor's thought she would never walk or talk again. The artist was in the hospital for five months and in a wheelchair for five years. The accident has left her with speech and walking problems. ^[3]

Exhibitions[edit]

As of 2012, Ruffner has had 40 solo shows, several hundred group shows, and her work is in 42 permanent collections in museums around the world. ^[4]

Solo Exhibitions:

2013 Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID, "Aesthetic Engineering" Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA, "Further Experiments in Aesthetic Engineering; Paper, Glass and Bronze" 2012 Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID, "Aesthetic Engineering Series: Visual Thought Experiments" Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C., "Aesthetic Engineering Series: Visual Thought Experiments" 2011 Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA "Aesthetic Engineering Series: Visual Thought Experiments" 2010 Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue WA, "Aesthetic Engineering: The Imagination Cycle" 2009 Hawk Gallery, Columbus, OH "Imagination Garden" 2008 Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA “Nature Reveals Art: Aesthetic Engineering” Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA 2007 Ochi Fine Art, Ketchum, ID Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA 2006 Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, Suffolk, VA Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. 2005 R. Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA Woodside/Braseth Gallery, Seattle, WA University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA 2004 Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL Virginia Contemporary Art Center, Virginia Beach, VA Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. 2003 Imago Gallery, Palm Springs, CA Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Montgomery, AL Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA * Woodside/Braseth Gallery, Seattle, WA 2002 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2001 Heller Gallery, NYC Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO 2000 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA 1999 Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. Heller Gallery, NYC Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO 1998 Meyerson/Nowinski Art Associates, Seattle, WA Duane Reed Gallery, Chicago, IL 1997 Heller Gallery, New York, NY Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, DC Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL 1996 Meyerson/Nowinski Art Associates, Seattle, WA 1995 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA Seattle University, Seattle, WA Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA 1994 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, Chicago, IL Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1993 Heller Gallery, New York, NY 1991 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1990 Heller Gallery, New York, NY Brendan Walter Gallery, Los Angeles, CA William Traver Gallery, Seattle, WA 1989 Sanske Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, D.C. Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL 1988 Heller Gallery, New York, NY Huntington Museum, Huntington, WV* 1987 Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI Traver-Sutton Gallery, Seattle, WA, "Shared Secrets," (collaborative paintings with novelist Tom Robbins) 1985 Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA David Bernstein Gallery, Boston, MA 1984 Georgia Tech Gallery, Atlanta, GA, "Recent Paintings"

She was profiled on the NPR show Weekend America on 18 March 2006. From 2012 her books and documentation were added to the permanent collection of Giorgio Cini Foundation's Centro Studi del Vetro (Glass Study Center) in Venice, Italy.

References[edit]

This article uses public domain text from the Voice of America article cited below.

^ Koplos, Janet (2010). Makers : a history of American studio craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 450–451. ISBN 9780807834138. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
^ "U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies". Retrieved 9 March 2014.
^ "Artist Reinvents Herself After Near-Fatal Accident". Voice of America. March 20, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
^ "Artist Reinvents Herself After Near-Fatal Accident". Voice of America. March 20, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-23.