This exhibit at The Bellevue Arts Museum, open through February 6, 2011, is a visual journey through the never-ending forces of creativity and imagination. It features large-scale sculpture that cross-fertilizes flora, fauna and art. Mixing glass, steel and bronze, Seattle artist Ginny Ruffner creates explosive flowers, massive leaves and twisted growing vines. Included in this exhibit are over 10 sculptures and more than 1,000 flowers.
Responding to recent developments in genetic engineering, specifically gene sharing between animals and plants, Ruffner’s hybrid sculptures stretch the imagination. What happens when two entities that cannot reproduce with each other merge? “The goals of this series are twofold – increased beauty and the intellectual stimulation of visual thought experiments,” the artist says.
Born in Atlanta, Ginny Ruffner received her M.F.A. degree from the University of Georgia in 1975. Choosing lamp work as her initial art form, Ruffner quickly revolutionized the medium with her imaginative painterly designs. Today, her large-scale sculptures and public works incorporate metal and other media and are a testament to Ruffner’s accomplishments as both a glass artist and painter. She is the subject of an award-winning documentary film, Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life, that traces her extraordinary life and miraculous recovery from a near-fatal car accident in 1991. (Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life will be screened at BAM on December 3 at 6 pm.) Her work can be found in countless national and international public collections, including the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (New York, NY), the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (Sapporo, Japan) and the Museum of Design & Contemporary Applied Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland).
Ginny Ruffner: Aesthetic Engineering, The Imagination Cycle is organized by Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Washington. Artwork is courtesy of the artist. The local presentation of this exhibition is curated by Stefano Catalani and made possible by the Benaroya Foundation and the City of Bellevue Arts Program.
Image: Ginny Ruffner When Lightning Blooms, 2006 Bronze, stainless steel & glass 42 x 38 x 24 in.
Bellevue Arts Museum is the Pacific Northwest’s center for the exploration of art, craft and design. Innovative exhibitions, dynamic educational programs and special community events engage audiences of all ages in new conversations about art and the many ways in which it shapes our lives and communities.
Bellevue Arts Museum
510 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: 425.519.0770
Fax: 425.637.1799
www.bellevuearts.org