Pioneer of installation art Judy Pfaff to open new exhibit at Rice Gallery Feb. 1

Pioneer of installation art Judy Pfaff to open new exhibit at Rice Gallery Feb. 1

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Rice Gallery will feature a new work by Judy Pfaff, pioneer of installation art, as the first exhibition of 2007.

COURTESY PHOTO

An installation by artist Judy Pfaff will be the first of the year at the Rice Art Gallery. Pfaff will experiment with the gallery space and her materials as she assembles the exhibition that will open Feb. 1.

Pfaff uses no precise plans or explanatory drawings to create her installations. Instead, she works intuitively, improvising on-site and creating work that is specific to a particular space. Her installations have been described as ”exuberant” and ”lush,” ”tumultuous” and ”gorgeous.” She will experiment with the Rice Gallery space and her materials as she assembles the exhibition that will open Feb. 1 and run through April 1.

Pfaff, whose work also includes sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking, is often described as an artist whose work seeks to make painting more sculptural and sculpture more painterly. Her installations, made by layering materials and patterns in space, have been characterized as ”dancing at the edge of chaos.” Often organic in feeling, her materials have just as often been organic in nature — such as massive tree branches and vines. Her most recent installation, ”Buckets of Rain,” was one such visually rich and tactile environment. Pfaff painted entire trees and root complexes in hues of inky black and ghostly white and augmented them with oozing black foam. The dense and ominous tangles of branches were juxtaposed with a smooth floor-to-ceiling hourglass-shaped structure and textured, grey walls covered with sleek fluorescent light strips.

Pfaff was born in London in 1946 and raised in Detroit. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale in 1973. Her work has been exhibited worldwide in major museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2004, Pfaff was named a MacArthur Fellow and joined the illustrious roster of recipients of what is colloquially known as the ”genius grant.” She is the Richard B. Fisher Professor in the Arts at Bard College in New York.

An opening celebration will be held at Rice Gallery from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, with remarks by Pfaff at 6 p.m. Complimentary beverages, including ale from St. Arnold Brewery, will be served. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit or call 713-348-5761.