Throughout her career, Judy Pfaff has always worked both two and three dimensionally, incorporating a wide variety of materials within her paintings, sculptures, prints and installations. Known as a pioneer of installation art, her sculptures and installations meticulously piece together plastic, fiberglass, steel, and fabric to create visually complex and detailed environments. Like her installations, Pfaff’s prints contain a three-dimensional quality, layering her drawings, paintings and prints with hand-applied materials such as fabric-dye, ink, and collage.
Judy Pfaff (b. 1946) received her B.F.A. from Washington University and her M.F.A from Yale University. Pfaff has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, and has received many accolades including a Lifetime Achievement Award, International Sculpture Center (2014); Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2013); MacArthur Fellowship (2004); Guggenheim Fellowship (1983); National Endowment for the Arts grants (1979, 1986), among others. Her commissions include works at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (Philadelphia); GTE Corporation, Irving, TX; Wacoal, Tokyo, Japan; and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her work can also be found in numerous permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of Art; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and the Detroit Institute of Art. Pfaff has been a member of the Art department at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY since 1994.