ruth spitzer

lives and works in toronto (canada)

1990 became a shoemaker and started to work at german opera berlin and staatstheater darmstadt in costume design. 1991 to 1992 meeting with annette gloser, gabriele müller, florian lumeaux, dirk paschke, jörg rees and others. co-founded the artist group ‘muttertag’ in frankfurt. 1992 enrolled at offenbach academy of art and design, to study product design. 1999 won the international competition in kioto with her carpet design ‘home office.’ typical for her early work are innovative concepts for everyday life products such as a book providing a manual for self-assembled shoes.

moved to toronto in 2002. meeting with sarah dorkenwald and start of intensive collaboration, concentrating on issues of nomadic lifestyle and adaptation. 2004 they participated at the salone satellite in milan to launch their project wallfurniture. at the same time, started to explore walking on water which was exhibited 2008 at harbourfront centre, toronto with support from the ontario council of arts.

parallel to her practice she is engaged in design education. 2009 cooperation with don carr and mike mcallister ‘colab’ in syracuse, n.y. for walk escapes and social product which where both extra curriculum offers to interdisciplinary students at university of syracuse.

in 2002, co-founded the canadian-based design partnership dorkenwald und spitzer with communication designer sarah dorkenwald. since then spitzer and dorkenwald have been collaborating successfully on a wide range of artistic and professional projects to explore the fluid borders between art and design. dorkenwald und spitzer have received several awards, gaining an international reputation.