John Ruppert, Sculptor – Professor and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park, was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1951. He received his BA 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.
From 1962-64 he lived in Amman, Jordan. Became active in archaeology and traveled throughout the area (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus), visited sites and participated in several digs. Experiencing the remains of ancient cities and civilizations in the barren landscape has had a lasting effect on my artwork and me.
He has been a full time faculty member since 1987 and Chair since 1998, teaches all levels and aspects of sculpture and drawing including graduate studies.
Prof. Ruppert has had numerous one-person exhibitions including: John Davis Gallery, NYC, Copia Museum, Napa, CA., Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, CA, Weatherspoon Gallery, Greensboro, NC., Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL , Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC; The Chicago Cultural Center; The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach; The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art; and the C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
His work has also been featured in large scale sculpture exhibitions and many group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, including the: the Today Art Museum, Beijing, China, National Museum of Contemporary Art KUMU, Tallinn,, Estonia, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin; Stone Quarry Hill, Cazenovia, New York; the Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton, New Jersey; Center of Culture Castle, Poznon, Poland, SECCA, Winston/Salem, NC and Museum of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, NC., DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Boston, MA, The Pirkkala Sculpture Park, Pirkkala , Finland, Muzeum Okregowe Leona Wyczolkowskiego W Bydgoszczy, and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally and has received numerous grants and awards.
Ruppert’s cast “Pumpkins” are in numerous collections on the west and east coasts including Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton, NJ.
Currently Ruppert has an outdoor installing at OMI International Sculpture Park, NY and has work included in a three year traveling exhibition “Material Terrain” commissioned by Laumeier International Sculpture Park, St. Louis MO. This exhibition will travel to Museums and sculpture parks thought out the US. In April 2005, had a one person exhibition at the John Davis Gallery in NYC.
Reviews of his work have been published in Art in America, Sculpture, the New Art Examiner and the New York Times.
Prof. Ruppert’s sculpture addresses the relationship between natural systems and human decision-making through the phenomena of materials using industrial processes such as rugged iron castings in context with chain-link fabric forms and video projections.
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