Judy Pfaff

Our new exhibit will be opening on April 16 and we are delighted to have the honor to host the work of Judy Pfaff. This is a must-see show and a rare opportunity since Judy has not exhibited in a Chicago gallery since the 80's.

Much of what we will show will be brand-new (she's still creating it) and LARGE. So large, in fact, we sadly can't even fit many of the pieces in the gallery. After talks of ripping out door frames and smashing through cement walls (not kidding) were quieted, we decided to exhibit the smaller works here (and by small we're still talking 6ft) and take 2 large pieces to Art Chicago. Like I said... you don't want to miss this.

To get a little background on Judy, here is her bio and her segment on Art:21 -

Biograhpy......................
Judy Pfaff was born in London, England in 1946. She received a BFA from Washington University, Saint Louis (1971) and an MFA from Yale University (1973). Balancing intense planning with improvisational decision-making, Pfaff creates exuberant, sprawling sculptures and installations that weave landscape, architecture, and color into a tense yet organic whole. A pioneer of installation art in the 1970s, Pfaff synthesizes sculpture, painting, and architecture into dynamic environments in which space seems to expand and collapse, fluctuating between the two- and three-dimensional. Pfaff’s site-specific installations pierce through walls and careen through the air, achieving lightness and explosive energy. Pfaff’s work is a complex ordering of visual information composed of steel, fiberglass, and plaster as well as salvaged signage and natural elements such as tree roots. She has extended her interest in natural motifs in a series of prints integrating vegetation, maps, and medical illustrations, and has developed her dramatic sculptural materials into set designs for several theatrical stage productions. Pfaff has received many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (2004); a Bessie (1984); and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1983) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1986). She has had major exhibitions at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2002); Denver Art Museum (1994); St. Louis Art Museum (1989); and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1982). Pfaff represented the United States in the 1998 São Paolo Bienal. Pfaff lives and works in Kingston and Tivoli, New York.


Video link......................