**BEYOND THE CANVAS: Touch, Trace, Tangle ** Artists: Chere Krakovsky, Judy Pfaff, Sylvia Schwartz & Suzan Shutan January 31-February 28, 2025

Artist talk moderated by Laura Gwen Shapiro: February 23, 2025, 1:00 pm

Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 12:00 - 6:00 pm or by appointment

Artists Chere Krakovsky, Judy Pfaff, Sylvia Schwartz and Suzan Shutan create dynamic visceral works that command one’s sensibilities, drawing us into thoughtful complex commentary and physical space. Krakovsky, Schwartz and Shutan belong to the many generations of artists who have had the opportunity to study with Judy Pfaff at pivotal times in their lives. This exhibit brings their work together for the first time. Having begun their creative journey as traditional painters, they have since expanded their language, personal definitions, historical relationship and context to the painting they loved- beyond the square and the canvas.

Color becomes a shapeshifter in each artists works, exchanging properties with other materials in which the painter’s eye is always present. Schwartz’s yarn structures become the paint and brush strokes, the light and dark, while Shutan’s tar paper surfaces are nuanced with negative spaces in which glowing colors inhabit. Krakovsky’s performance is infused with elements of painting found in water, on her body and as a narrative element, while Pfaff’s amalgamation of materials, techniques and ideas immerse us in illumination and color. Each of these artists create opportunities for exploration with their audiences- touch, inhabitable space, saturated light, sound, and engagement as contemplation.

Chere Krakovsky (American/born in Japan) is an interdisciplinary artist. She studied with Judy Pfaff at California Institute of the Arts where she received her BFA and earned an MFA from Goddard College. VT. This year her collaboration with filmmaker Mark Ezovski on "The Straight Curved Line" was awarded best experimental film at the Bowery Film Festival. Her visual/performance work has been seen at The Corcoran, Abington Art Center, The Kitchen, and Powerhouse Arena. She was a participant in an Alan Kaprow performance in the late 60's. Catalogues, collections, & reviews include Art Omi, Loughelton, Amy Lipton Gallery, The Washington Post and Artblog. Krakovsky has participated in group shows including Lombard Fried Gallery, Sander Gallery, Procter Art Center at Bard College, Amy Lipton and Loughelton galleries. She has lived in New York since 1978.

Sylvia Schwartz (American/born in Australia) Schwartz studied sculpture with artist Judy Pfaff at Columbia University. She previously completed an MFA in painting from the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia. Schwartz has exhibited at the Attleboro Museum, Nurture Art, ODETTA Gallery, Lesley Heller Gallery, the Visual Art Center of New Jersey and the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, among other galleries. She has lived and worked in New York since 1991.

Suzan Shutan (American) is an installation artist who studied sculpture with Judy Pfaff as an undergrad at California Institute of the Arts, later completing an MFA from Rutgers University Mason Gross, NJ. She has been awarded grants from Art Matters, CEC Artslink, Berkshire Taconic Foundation’s A.R.T, Fellowships from Connecticut Commission and residencies at Yaddo and Bemis. Reviews include NY Times, Sculpture & Smithsonian Magazines with work in private collections such as LogMeIn, Sloan Kettering Hospital and UCLA. Her international group shows are as far reaching as Argentina, Ukraine, Canada, Australia and Europe, with solo exhibitions at The Aldrich Museum, Housatonic Museum, Islip Museum, Arts & Cultural Center of Florida, Kenise Barnes Gallery and Zacheta National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw Poland. She currently resides with a studio in New Haven, Connecticut.

Judy Pfaff (American/born in England) holds a BFA from Washington University, St. Louis, MO and an MFA from Yale University. Al Held, an abstract painter who taught at Yale while Pfaff was earning her MFA, was a significant influence on Pfaff's artistic style. Her Installations are displayed and collected in numerous prestigious art museums throughout the United States and abroad including; Detroit Institute of Arts, Orlando Museum of Art, Imperial Hotel, Bellas Artes, Tampa Museum of Art, St. Louis Art Museum, Albright-Knox Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum of Modern Art, The High Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim Museum, Germany among many. Pfaff major recognitions include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and has worked at Bard College since 1994, coordinating the school's program in studio arts. Her work is represented by notable dealers such as Miles McEnery Gallery, NY, Cristin Tierny, NY and Robischon Gallery in Denver, CO. She currently lives and works in Tivoli, New York.

Beyond The Canvas: Touch, Trace, Tangle

Memory Carcass