Judy Pfaff

Judy Pfaff is an artist that creates two and three dimensional sculptures. She was born in London, England in 1946. She went to Washington University in 1971 for her BFA. She received her MFA from Yale University in 1973. Her sculptures weave landscape, color and architecture as a whole. Her work is made out of steel, plaster, fiberglass, and natural elements. For example, for some projects she used tree roots. The artist has interests in natural motifs. She has received various awards such as a Bessie in 1984 and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation award in 2004. Pfaff has had art exhibits at places such as the University of Wisconsin, St. Louis Art Museum and the Elvehjem Museum of Art. 

My favorite image of Pfaff's is the "Elephant" which is 50 feet high. The piece of work is made out of birch tree, fiberglass resin, steel, woven copper wire, duct tubing, plant materials, and water. I really like this piece of art because it looked like an elephant even though it was made out of these unusual materials. The branches make the piece look very natural with sharp edges. I really liked her other pieces of work with wire because the shapes were very unique. All of her art has very unusual shapes, which makes it stand out. She seems to use a lot of circles in her pieces of art.

Commentary on her work:

"Wall works evoked fantastic undersea landscapes or bizarre fungi… Here the worlds displayed brilliant colors and even garnish colors and occasionally neon lights." -Eleanor Heartney Art News

"At Zoubok, the artist takes a more ecological turn with moss-colored drawings and collages, tumbling plastic sculptures with floral motifs, and a stunning wall-sized work that incorporates twining branches, images of fish and crustaceans, and Chinese lanterns refashioned into birds’ nests. "Through Nov 15. (Zoubok, 525 W. 26th St. 212-675-7490;

"Visiting Judy Pfaff’s studio is special because I know I’ll see things I’ve never seen before...The organization of each work area is immaculate, including the work-in-progress… An intense artist, Pfaff transparently and emphatically draws from and brings together many traditions, cultures, sources, and forces of nature." Jan Garden Castro

"She is unstoppable, having devised a working method that is capable of absorbing an enormous range of materials, processes and moods...Pfaff is an artist of the old school. She puts the stamp of her personality on whatever theme she takes up. She thoroughly reinvigorates a tired trope — the natural vs. the man-made — and in the process suggests that just about anything is open to being revisited, reinvented, rediscovered. Embracing a familiar idea and completely recasting it in her own idiom, she demonstrates an awe-inspiring tenacity. " -Stephen Maine

"The wall installations at Loretta Howard have an orbital, ethereal feel to them...

The circular forms take on the persona of planets in a solar system appearing to spin in space. High tone color is accomplished so simply by using plastic and light emanates from fluorescent bulbs. Pfaff is so accomplished at having order emerge out of a sense of chaos. A century ago, Kandinsky, achieved a similar result in his pursuit of abstraction."- Max-Art

Subject matter-I see several pink and orange circles. Some of the circles have hollow centers. The center circle is in front of a black and orange background. The circles are surrounded by wavy lines of purple. There are lights behind the piece of work. Electrical wires are coming from the bottom of the piece.

Medium- The piece is made from melted plastic, pigmented expanded foam, acrylic, resin, plexi glass, steel and fluorescents. The plastic created soft looking lines.

Form-There colors are pink, orange, blue, purple, and black. There is light coming behind the piece form the fluorescents. The lights are emphasized in the piece. The circles in the piece have radial symmetry but the purple plastic is asymmetrical.  The piece covers the size of the wall.

There is juxtaposition between asymmetrical shapes and electricity. These shapes are found in nature and they are put next to light, reflecting nature in the digital age.

Recontextualization- The lights are put in this installation to reflect ideas on nature in the digital age.

Associations- organic shapes in nature
The piece explores the idea of nature in the digital age.

.http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/judy-pfaff

http://www.art21.org/slideshows/judy-pfaff/artwork-survey-1990s
http://www.judypfaffstudio.com