Ruthanna Hopper was born in Taos, New Mexico before moving as a young girl to Marin County, where she grew up in the laboratory of artists and dancers, who gathered at her grandparents Halprin House Mountain Home Studio to work with her mother and grandmother, the dancers Daria Halprin, and the pioneer of post-modern dance, Anna Halprin, as well as her grandfather, the environmental designer, Lawrence Halprin.
Hopper considers this bohemian, artistic upbringing her most influential teacher. It is through this immersion in creative life and process in her formative years that she inherited an education in art.
Hopper received her BFA in Art History from UC Davis, where she studied theory and Studio Art with Wayne Thiebaud, Malaquias Montoya, Cornelia Schulz and Robert Arneson. She went on to graduate from William Esper in New York where she trained in Performance and Theater Arts. Hopper is in ongoing training in her lineage work at the Tamalpa Institute, founded in 1978 by her mother Daria Halprin and grandmother Anna Halprin, working at the intersection of multi-disciplinary arts in dance, visual art, performance art, collective creativity and scoring in the Halprin Method.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions:
April, 2022 The Figueroa, The Emergence, Featured Artist Year-long, Solo Exhibition
June, 2022 The Figueroa, Immersive Suite installation, Solo Exhibition
July, 2022 Blum & Poe Gallery, Director, Dusk Dance featuring Daria Halprin from Anna Halprin’s Still Dances
July, 2022 Blum & Poe Gallery, Co-Curator, Three Landscapes: JB Blunk, Anna and Lawrence Halprin Exhibition
September, 2022 The Figueroa, The Harvest, Solo Exhibition
December, 2022 The Figueroa, The Wintering, Solo Exhibition
Press:
Thrillest, 12 Cool New Art Exhibits to Check Out in LA Before They Disappear
LA Weekly, The Emergence Exhibition review, Art Critic Shana Nys Dambrot
Apartment Therapy, The Emergence Exhibition, review by Emma Kershaw
Ruthanna Hopper, Halprin House Studio, 2023