“I just wanted to be an artist in art. I didn’t want to be original. I didn’t want to be different. I wanted to be in that big family. Because of these new ideas of space and time and the computer and women, that whole Pandora’s box was open.” – Judy Pfaff
An initial viewing of New York artist Judy Pfaff’s collages set in shadow boxes raises questions. These textured works, delicate all, bear a heavy female scent. While many women feel tossed about like plankton as they move through life—and its cycles—with as little control as a grain of sand in a rip tide, Pfaff plucks, separates and stores the feminine mystiques.
Construction materials sometimes resemble bodily tissues, or kelp.
Pfaff, a recipient of both a McArthur Fellowship Genius Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, pays a special visit to Jackson with her show I Dwell In Possibility, on display at the Tayloe Piggot Gallery July 12-August 15. An opening reception takes place Thursday, July 17, 5-8:00 pm. Piggot met Pfaff through gallery artist Jane Rosen, who “cut her teeth” with Pfaff in New York’s 1980’s art scene. The three women connected, and Pfaff decided to lend work for this show.
In an interview for PBS’s Art 21 series—and by the way, she’s great interview—Pfaff talks about the tempestuous side of her art.
“I think there’s always a melancholy in the work, though everyone has always thought of my work as being very happy, or jaunty, or—what’s that word I get—an explosion in a glitter factory. There’s always something that seemed carefree, easygoing. I can hardly remember that. I mean I can have a good time and I can be lighthearted.”
Pfaff can, and does, summon a delicate Asian quality in some of the works from this show. “Lady Monck” floats like lily pads and scattered cherry blossoms on a pond.
For info: [email protected] 307.733.0555
Item #2:
The Jackson Hole Art Auction 2010 takes place Saturday, September 18, at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts, in Jackson, Wyoming. We’re specifying location because this auction has, in just four years, become one of the highest grossing Western Art Auctions, with live, absentee and phone bidders across the country, and across the seas. 2009’s auction realized just under $6 million for approximately 240 lots.
Produced by Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery, this is an auction of “past and present masters of the American West.” The auction’s Jackson headquarters are upstairs at Trailside Galleries—-walk through to the auction desk and displayed auction lots. Registrar Emma Zanetti and Curator Heidi Theios are happy to show you around; you may also register to bid.
Art markets, at this level, remain strong. Some might say they’re excelling. Look for works by these and other artists: William Acheff, Clyde Aspevig, Ken Carlson, Martin Grelle, Bill Owen, G. Harvey, Kenneth Riley, Mian Situ, Howard Terpning,
Morgan Weistling, and Z.S. Liang are just a few whose paintings have sold for well over the estimated values.
Look for important works by the Taos Society of Artists, the Santa Fe Art Colony, as well as historically recognized artists of the American West. Works of special note include a major E.I.Couse, William R. Leigh, Oscar Berninghaus, E. Martin Hennings, and Charlie Dye.
Other highlights of the sale include several works by Bob Kuhn (whose painting of a red fox in winter sold for $299,000 with the hammer price), Lanford Monroe, a new Carl Brenders original, and two magnificent paintings by noted wildlife artist Carl Rungius.
For further information call 1.866.549.9278, visit www.jacksonholeartauction.com or stop by Trailside Galleries at 130 East Broadway, in Jackson.
Item #3:
The Grand Teton Association presents the second of four free plein air summer events on Saturday, July 10, when painter Shannon Thal sets up her easel at the Cottonwood Turnout. From 9am-Noon that day you can find Thal there—-look for the event banner. Cottonwood Turnout is the first turnout on the right north of Taggart and Bradley Lakes, in Grand Teton National Park.
Artists in the Park, officially Artists in the Environment, is free and open to the public.
A native of Maryland’s eastern shores, an area known for its artists, wildlife and exquisite fragile ecosystems, Thal moved to Jackson to pursue her love of landscape painting and for the beauty she found here. She is represented at Horizon Gallery in Jackson and will be a guest artist at Trio Gallery this fall.
Phone: 307-739-3606 or 917-864-9395
Tammy Christel 
