Judy Pfaff

Untitled, 2019

Bird nests, steel, wire, roots, glass, acrylic, photographic inspired digital image on MDF

Press Release

JUDY PFAFF

May 31 - July 15, 2019

Reception May 31, 6-9pm

Gaa Gallery Provincetown

 

Gaa Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work from Judy Pfaff, with an opening reception on Friday, May 31 from 6 - 9 pm at Gaa Gallery Provincetown, located at 494 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA.

 

Renowned for her immersive and ambitious installations, Judy Pfaff creates a diverse range of works that defy easy classification. She is regarded as a pioneer of installation art and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including a MacArthur “genius” grant, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Pfaff’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and institutions worldwide. The upcoming exhibition at Gaa Gallery marks Pfaff’s second project with the gallery and her first time exhibiting in Provincetown, where the artist will install recent sculptures and works on paper.

 

Pfaff’s work is characterized by a profoundly visual and tactile appreciation for objects, images, material, and space. Drawing from a range of disciplines—including sculpture, painting, and printmaking—the artist utilizes a breadth of materials, mining the physicality of everyday objects and transforming them into multilayered hybrids of organic, architectural considerations of the made and natural world. Often highly transformative to the spaces they inhabit, Pfaff’s immersive and expansive installations abound with dimension and reciprocity: For over 40 years, Pfaff has created works that mirror growth and abundance, while also balancing the dense and intricate layers of transitory space.

 

Judy Pfaff (b. 1946, London) is a New York-based artist whose pioneering, maximal installations of dense materiality and soaring ethereal structure established her as a master of contemporary site-specific work. Pfaff has continued to create intricate, expansive installations across the globe, while also working in collage, print, sculpture, and paint to explore and illuminate the infinite geometric considerations of physical space via visual and tactile presentation. Her work was included in the Whitney Biennials of 1975, 1981, and 1987. Pfaff also exhibited work in the Venice Biennales of 1982 and 1984, and represented the United States in the 1998 Sao Paulo Bienal. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of Art, Tate Gallery, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center (2014), the MacArthur Foundation Award (2004), and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1983).