Judy Pfaff will trace her process and career from early mentorship at Yale University under Art Held and its infancy in the downtown NYC art scene of the early 1970s, to her contemporary multi-disciplinary approach carried out in the creatively fertile rural expanse of her upstate compound in the Hudson Valley.
Often cited as a pioneer of installation-art and contributor to the Pattern and Decoration Movement (P&D), Judy Pfaff has created work that spans disciplines from painting to printmaking and sculpture to installation. Born in London in 1946, Pfaff received a BFA from Washington University Saint Louis (1971) and an MFA from Yale University (1973) where she studied with Al Held. She exhibited work in the Whitney Biennials of 1975, 1981, and 1987, and represented the United States in the 1998 Sao Paulo Bienal. Her pieces reside in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney Museum of Art, Tate Gallery, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. She is currently represented by the Miles McEnery and Accola Griefen galleries in New York and has been previously represented by Holly Solomon, Carl Solway and Susanne Hilberry. 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 Guggenhiem Fellowship (1983). Pfaff lives and works in Tivoli, New York.
The School of Art focuses on bringing renowned and diverse artists and scholars from around the world to our campus. These visitors bring their own unique influences to the program by engaging with community members, students, and faculty through salons, lectures, and exhibitions.