Internationally Acclaimed Artist Judy Pfaff Opens the New Esther Massry Gallery

The Esther Massry Gallery presents “Paperworks, Year of the Dog, Pig, Rat, Etc.,” new collage-drawings and prints by London-born, New York artist Judy Pfaff. In this latest body of work, Pfaff’s series of small, delicate drawings are juxtaposed with large-scale works on paper of varied motifs and prints based on the Chinese New Year, produced at Tandem Press.

JUDY PFAFF PAPERWORKS, YEAR OF THE DOG, PIG, RAT, ETC. September 20-November 9, 2009

One of the most influential artists of our time, Judy Pfaff has broken down the barriers between the visual arts. Her impressive career spans more than 33 years of making art across the globe. She began as a painter at Yale but soon became recognized for her highly original sculptures laden with emotional impact. She resists categories but has always remained loyal to painting. Pfaff states, “My mind is wired as a painter, not a sculptor. I don’t deal with mass. I don’t deal with weight.”

Pfaff collaborates with space and matter, defining the infinite world of possibilities that lies between painting and sculpture, two dimensions and three dimensions. In this realm, she moves freely between high and low art, architecture, organic and geometric motifs, personal history, world influences, accumulative knowledge, experience and fantasy. Her work evolves with an exuberant vision, intense physicality and exhilarating sense of chaos that she continues to hone.

The artist is a remarkable engineer, builder, welder and fabricator who tackles huge projects hands-on from start to finish. Her permanent installation, “Cirque CIRQUE,” (1994-1995) at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center is one of the largest public art projects undertaken in recent years. It is located in the former Reading Railroad Terminal (1892), known at the time as the world’s biggest room. The monumental sculpture is constructed over an area of 70,000 square feet and includes nine miles of metal tubing and 120 hand-blown glass orbs.

Besides the ambitious sculpture installations for which Pfaff is renowned, she is a superb draftsman. Her repertoire includes drawings, collages, prints and mixed-media constructions. On exhibit at the Massry Center are all new mixed-media drawings and four huge, multi-layered prints that were produced earlier this year at Tandem Press in association with the Elvehjem Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Pfaff’s prints are highly complex and incorporate multiple plates, collage elements, folded, perforated and cut papers. She employs a variety of media including photogravure, encaustic, lithography, silkscreen, woodcuts and more. The prints are presented in special frames that the artist designs and fabricates as part of the finished work.

Pfaff has profoundly influenced younger artists either whom she has personally taught over the years or who have seen her work in hundreds of venues throughout the world. She is a role model who has always followed a unique, artistic vision with a deliberate quest. Artist and mentor, Pfaff sums it up: “…you should be allowed to test murky, unclear, unsure territory or all you have left are substitutes that signify these positions. Having it all together is the least interesting thing in art, in being alive.”

Pfaff was born in London in 1946. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree (1971) from Washington University in St. Louis and went on to receive her master of fine arts degree (1973) from Yale University. In 1999, the artist was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The artist has presented more than 115 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 250 group and traveling exhibitions in the United States, Europe, South America and the Far East. She received critical acclaim early in her career for her first solo show, “J.A.S.O.N./J.A.S.O.N.,” at Artists Space curated by Irving Sandler and her installation, “Blue Wabe In 2,” at the Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, both held in 1975 in New York.

Solo exhibitions and sculpture installations include “Judy Pfaff Very Recent Work,” Bellas Artes Gallery, Sante Fe, N.M., 2008; “…all of the above,” Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, 2007; “Buckets of Rain,” Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, 2006; “The Art of Judy Pfaff,” Elvehjem Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison; “Notes on Light and Color,” Jaffe-Friede & Strauss Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 2000.; “Round Hole Square Peg,” Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1997; “N.Y.C.-B.Q.E.,” Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1987; “Gu, Choki, Pa,” Spiral Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, 1985; “Kabuki,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1981. The artist was selected to represent the United States at the 1998 Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The artist lives and works in New York City and the mid-Hudson Valley. For additional images of Pfaff’s works, visit her website www.judypfaff.org.