JOHN RUPPERT
"Such juxtapositions between the industrial and the natural are essential to Ruppert's practice, with harmonious compositions reconciling machine-made materials and the mutability of organic forms.. Though his works have been characterized as Zen-like - indeed many of his sculptures resemble visual koans - they feel more Taoist in spirit rather than polar opposites that interact within a larger dynamic system. And his understanding of energy - whether in natural phenomena or in art - is similar to Chi, the Taoist term for the life force underlying the universe. Just as Taoism doesn't consider the void empty, Ruppert's theatrical installations transform space into a living stage where energy engages sculpture"
- Sarah Tanguy, Art Historian, Washington, D.C., Sculpture Magazine, September 2012, Vol. 31, No.7
Over the past 4 decades, John Ruppert has been working in cast metals; manufactured materials such as chain-link fabric; mixed media; and more recently, video, digital 3D printing and digital composite photography. His work stems from a long tradition of artists who have been inspired by the grand and sublime beauty of the land, from the ancient Chinese poets and artists of Tao to the 19th century American landscape painters and more recently, to artists working directly in the landscape considering our relationship to the environment. His interest in natural phenomena - both in source and in the way that he works - is what drives his creative practice.
John Ruppert has exhibited widely at institutions in the US and abroad including Adkins Arboretum, The Academy Art Museum, Kreeger Museum, Katonah Museum, OMI International Sculpture Park, and DeCordova Museum. He is the recipient of many awards and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, and Maryland State Arts Council Individual Awards, as well as commissions at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport and The American Visionary Art Museum. Ruppert received his MFA from the School for American Craftsman, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, in 1977. He is a Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Maryland, College Park and currently lives and works in Baltimore.
John Ruppert, Shift - Maine, 2017, igneous rock and cast bronze, 9 x 15 x 12 inches