Independent curator Johnes Ruta, originally from Stratford, CT, is a consultant with several art galleries in Connecticut and New York City. He is an artist representative, collector, activist and theorist of art, philosophy, and science history, and periodically sponsors forums on these subjects. Mr. Ruta is a published author of surrealist writings exploring the Unconscious. He has been a business analyst, computer programmer since 1978, and now a web designer. From 1973 to 1978, he was the Managing Editor & Theatre Critic of The Entertainer, a cultural newsmagazine in Fairfield and New Haven Counties. From 1988 to 2005, he was the art director of the York Square Gallery in New Haven, and from September 1, 2005 to August 31, 2015 of the Gallery of the New Haven Free Public Library. He is an Associate Curator for Gallery RIVAA on Roosevelt Island, NYC, also for Hagaman Memorial East Haven Library, Lyric Hall in Westville, CT, and other venues. He lives in Westville, and is a representative for New Haven on the Cable TV Advisory Council, also Board Vice President of the the William Meredith Foundation for the late U.S. Poet Laureate, and a Trustee of the William Kent Charitable Foundation for the late sculptor. As an "art theorist," he works to understand and support issues of creativity, Form, expression, and cultural transition.

The goal of my research, and my public works as an independent curator since 1988 and as an art theorist, is to develop a visual vocabulary which reflects the positive criteria of creative originality & culture, technical and aesthetic qualities, and the inherent depths of forms and themes.

Since 2001, I have organized and sponsored seven free forums in New Haven, CT, each presenting three-day weekend presentations of lecturers from all over the US on art, philosophical, scientific, and architectural history, and mythology through the ages.
For details, please see http://azothgallery.com/symposia.html

I have also attended historical conferences in Prague (1995 & 1997),
Granada, Spain & Marrakesh (2007), and Ortigia Sicily (2014), and many in New York City.

As an independent curator, I do whatever I can, working with artists of all ages and talents, to bring about greater cultural exchange, awareness, acceptance and enthusiasm for the arts. My vision is to apply the experience of my travels to art museums and galleries around the US and Europe, as well as my studies, to create an international center for the arts in New Haven. This center would offer programs in art history and appreciation, and bring artists’ work from abroad to the US, and would offer US artists the opportunity to see their work exported to foreign venues and recognition.

The historical parallels between science and creative culture are a continuing evolution. I support the non-linear expressions in contemporary art, but remain fascinated by the recurrent themes found especially in periods of technological or intellectual transition -- such as the parallels of Classical antiquity , the Renaissance, the theory of the Baroque, and the Romantic Movement. Advances in astronomy, medicine, and transportation parallel with those in music, the visual arts, and philosophy are investigated and charted.

-- As a well-known arts activist, I try to look into the distant future to see the eventualities of present actions and the potential manifestations of the human psyche; also looking into the past, through which a Light-Stream of creative expressions has illuminated a path of human survival, thought, and dignity : the forces of preservation, aesthetics, and Enlightenment -- against trends of decay and intolerance.