Judy - Hoffman

BREAK APART / RE-FORM A POP-UP EXHIBITION Andrea Burgay and Judy Hoffman share an energizing impulse to prod, scratch, and tear—to pull things apart. Dismantling unstable structures and faulty workings, they puncture outdated ways of seeing. Rebuilding and integrating what remains, opens possibilities for renewal. New forms emerge from the fragments, revealing visions within the remnants of what once was. For a conversation between their works on these themes, ceramic sculptor Judy Hoffman invited collage-based artist Andrea Burgay for this pop-up exhibition.

Judy Hoffman makes ceramic sculptures that reveal microbial architecture of blossoming decay. Like spores migrating by chance of wind or animal digestion, Hoffman reconfigured fragments from around her studio, creating what resembles environments or biochemical processes. While fragile, they are not afraid to play. Legs, sprouts, and hips thrust in and out of these structures that feel like they were extruded from a dimension or being outside of human scale. Hoffman's hand-built works draw much influence through the process of creation. Her pieces are torn and stabbed, seeming almost crude and vulgar at first. They speak of both disintegration and rebuilding—being pieced together with mismatched, discarded, eroded components. This produces a feeling of discomfort—if only briefly—as they refuse to be self-aware or shy from challenging us with their imperfection. They are liberated from having to mimic any form. Her sculptures are raw, but one quickly realizes that the work has been crafted with a tender regard to reveal the richness and beauty within their chaos.