Artist

Ginny Ruffner

born Atlanta, GA 1952-died Seattle, WA 2025
Media - portrait_image_114974.jpg - 137452
Courtesy of Ginny Ruffner. Photo by Doug Tucker.
Also known as
  • Ginny Martin Ruffner
Born
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Died
Seattle, Washington, United States
Biography

Seattle-based artist Ginny Ruffner trained at the University of Georgia, graduating with honors and an MFA in drawing and painting. Ruffner has had more than eighty-five solo exhibitions and several hundred group shows, and her flameworked and mixed-media sculptures and installations can be found in numerous national and international collections. Seattle public art installations include a 30-foot-tall kinetic water feature downtown and a permanent installation in the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. Recent augmented reality projects, in collaboration with Grant Kirkpatrick, include "Weston Riff" at Photo Center NW; "Branches" at Seattle International Film Festival; and "Poetic Hybrids" at the Seattle Art Museum. She has written two books and been the subject of an award-winning full-length documentary, "A Not So Still Life: The Ginny Ruffner Story" (2010). Ruffner has lectured and taught extensively and has served as artist-in-residence at schools and universities around the world.

"Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination," 2019

Videos

Exhibitions

This is an image of a flower coming out of a tree trunk
Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination
June 28, 2019–January 5, 2020
Renwick Gallery
Ginny Ruffner (1952-2025) is a glass artist best known for her elegant sculptures and mastery of glass techniques.

Related Books

A copy of the book cover for Ginny Ruffner with an image of a wood stump.
Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination
Reforestation of the Imagination invites us into a futuristic landscape of peril and promise. Combining handblown glass sculptures with augmented reality (AR), artist Ginny Ruffner blends art and technology, curiosity and wonder, and takes us on a journey of “what ifs”: What if the landscape is devastated? What can nature do to heal itself? What roles do creativity and science play in our ability to confront an altered landscape?