Glass painting

Seattle artist Ginny Ruffner’s works of art have graced the covers of art publications and have been included in major exhibitions in galleries and art museums in America, Europe and Japan. The exhibition includes the artist’s finest lamp-worked glass objects and bronze sculptures. These pieces are drawn from Ruffner’s private collection and provide a retrospective of her career.

Ruffner uses glass and sculpture to communicate her dreams, desires, frustrations, and fantasies. Frames incorporating sculptural elements such as chains, flowers, bear traps, hearts and arrows, along with the focal point – a large tornado with wings – relate to a different facet of the creative process. The tornado with wings may refer to the wellspring of creative thought, while the frame bound in chains cautions the viewer to remain aware of the picture. Continue reading →

Views From a Floating Island presents several fine Japanese works of art from the Columbia Museum of Art’s collection, many of which have never been on display in the Museum. Highlights include the decorative ivory Ball of Mice that seems to writhe with energy, as well as the only Japanese example in the museum’s collection of 50 snuff bottles. There are also two-dimensional pieces including mid-20th century woodblock prints by father-and-son masters, Hiroshi and Toshi Yoshida, contrasted with a selection of black and white photographs from contemporary Japanese photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto. This focus gallery installation and its related programming are organized in conjunction with the University of South Carolina’s Center for Asian Studies Asia Week, an annual event to be held during the last week of March.