Ginny Ruffner is all heart. She is easily the most lovable and exuberant artist ever to hail from this city. In her show of new works at Traver Gallery, she presents a new chapter: drawings on paper, made with paint, pencil, and image transfers, of flowers and birds and words and creatures. They have titles like Explosion in a Curly Factory. With them is another series, this one of glass sculptures, mostly so multicolored they almost make you sick, your dizziness converted at the last moment into joy by contrasting parts that are pure, clear, clean, watery glass. Heal here. (Traver Gallery, 110 Union St #200, travergallery.com, 10 am–5 pm, free, through June 2)

Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male...