| JOHN RUPPERT was born in Winchester,
Massachusetts, in 1951. His mother was a painter and his father was a mechanical
engineer. From 1962-64 his family lived in the Middle East. During that
time he became intrigued with archeology, visiting many ancient cities
and participating in "digs" from Egypt to Turkey. The time he spent visiting
the remains of past civilizations -- seeing how they were built by the
materials of their environment, and experiencing the process of their being
reclaimed by that environment -- has greatly influenced his art.
Ruppert received his Bachelor’s of Art in Art and Art Education from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1974, and his Master of Fine Arts from the School for American Craftsman, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, in 1977. Ruppert is curently represented by the John Davis Gallery in New York City and the C. Grimaldis Gallery in Blatimore, MD. Ruppert has had numerous one-person exhibitions including: Art et Industrie (in the Garden), New York City; The Chicago Cultural Center; The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach; The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art; C.Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore; Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, D.C. His work has also been featured in many group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, including: the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin; Stone Quarry Hill, Cazenovia, New York; the Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton, New Jersey; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Boston, MA; Evergreen House ,Baltimore; the Kreeger Museum ,Washington, DC.; SECA, Winston Salem, NC; Villa Montalvo, Saratoga , CA ; The Pirkkala Sculpture Park, Pirkkala, Finland; Muzeum Okregowe Leona Wyczolkowskiego W Bydgoszczy, Poland and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In 1998 he received the Juror’s Award at Baltimore’s ArtScape, and he also has received Individual Artist’s Grants from the Maryland State Ats Council in1991, 1995 and 1997. Reviews of his work have been published in Art in America, Sculpture and the New Art Examiner. In the autumn of 1998 Ruppert installed a commissioned piece at the New International Terminal at the Baltimore/ Washington Airport and in the spring of 1999 a grouping of cast "Pumpkins" was produced and added to the collection of Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton, NJ. Other commissions have been awarded by The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and the Xerox Corporation in Rochester, New York. Currently Ruppert has a major outdoor installation at The Fields Sculpture Park-Art Omi International Art Center, NY and work included in a two year traveling exhibition “Material Terrain” commissioned by Laumeier International Sculpture Park, St. Louis MO. This exhibition is traveling to Museums and sculpture parks through out the US. Ruppert, who is the chairman of the Department of Art at The University of Maryland, College Park, has been on the faculty there since 1987. |
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