Judy Pfaff (born 1946) is an American artist known mainly for installation art and sculptures, though she also produces paintings and prints.
[11] Pfaff enrolled in the MFA program at Yale University School of Art, where she embraced the use of heavy equipment and outsized materials.
[16] While others at the time subscribed to minimalist art forms, Pfaff began making colorful, visually active environments that encompassed an entire gallery[16] and complicated the relationship between sculpture and the architecture that contained it.
[17] Pfaff draws upon spiritual, botanical, and art historical imagery,[17] and "explores issues of creativity and the complexity of life by using strings, vines, spheres, and other objects arranged in a seemingly haphazard way".
[18] Although, Pfaff has so far refused to give narrative meaning to her work, which shows an "urgent and ferocious need to labor for the visual and tactile […] in an era where language dominates artistic activity".
[17] Pfaff incorporates a range of everyday and industrial materials into her installations such as wire, plastic tubing, fabric,[16] steel, fiberglass, and plaster as well as salvaged signage and tree roots.
[16] Rice Gallery describes her working process is intuitive and highly physical;[16] she relies on her knowledge, skill, and experience to carry her through.
[20] Pfaff's studio in upstate New York is filled with winches, welding equipment, a forklift, and pressure washers.
[22] Pfaff effortlessly uses the expansion of her work into space in a way that simultaneously evokes drawing, painting, and sculpture while making reference to both "high" art and popular culture.
This and her use of unusual materials like: paper, encaustic, burned foil, massive tree roots, fluorescent lights, glass drops, and many more are key facets to Judy Pfaff's take on sculpture.
[24] Pfaff's installation art demonstrates her aesthetical preferences and communicates varying emotions no matter the size or complexity.
[25] Judy Pfaff throughout all her site-specific installations demonstrates her perseverance in implementing her creativity no matter the setting or challenge.
In a review in The Brooklyn Rail, Kara L. Rooney wrote of the survey's cohesion, "somehow, Pfaff's eclectic interpretation of '80s flamboyance, '90s insecurity, and the aughts' incessant optimism succeeds.