Judy Sigunick

Judy Sigunick! !

From a!

Sister’s!

Closet! ! recent sculpture! !

June 13 - July 5, 2015!

Theo Ganz Studio!

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Theo Ganz Studio is very pleased to present From A Sister’s Closet, a solo exhibition of recent sculpture by Judy Sigunick. We are also taking this opportunity to present Untitled with Roses, a figure of ceramic and steel standing 80 x 47 x 32 inches and worked on over a ten-year period (2003-2013); the sculpture is in memory of Rachel Corrie.!

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The exhibition includes several smaller standing figures and wall pieces - all of it in ceramic and mixed media and most of it referencing Shakespearean characters; Viola from Twelfth Night, becomes muse for numerous works. Sigunick states: “I am intrigued by disguise and costume - from the ridiculous to the elegant…and, in fact, echoing the childhood experimentation in a sister’s closet, I feel that familiar draw to rummaging for meaning in a collection of possibilities, belonging not to me - but maybe…”!

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The artist was born and raised in Chicago and earned a BA from the University of Illinois. Later, when her children were a little older, she returned to her studies and received an MFA at SUNY New Paltz in 1993 and went on to receive a series of public art commissions and several artist residencies. Hudson Valley projects include the Morse School Mural and Mill Street Loft Mural both in Poughkeepsie; the Ulster County Poorhouse Memorial in New Paltz; the Anderson School for Autism in Rosendale, NY and a 60’ concrete whale on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie. !

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Sigunick was, until recently, an adjunct professor at Dutchess Community College where she taught for ten years. She now maintains a full-time studio practice at her home in Cragsmoor, New York. If she isn’t in her studio or office, you might find her running Shawangunk trails or in her kitchen making kimchi.!

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From a Sister’s Closet! !

My older sister’s closet was huge. Bigger and fuller than mine and packed with dresses, skirts, sweaters of every color, shoes and more.

Making my way into her room-sized closet with its wondrous collection of outfits, I would hunt that special something for an altered identity, a rich fantasy to twirl around my small fingers - an imaginary disguise to eventually become myself. It was and it wasn’t make-believe. Hardly knowing what I was after, this was a rabbit hole offering up various disguises - spinning a child’s identity like a windmill. !

This was ongoing throughout my childhood.!

I was roughly 7 years old.!

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I am intrigued by disguise and costume - from the ridiculous to the elegant. Three years ago, I found Shakespeare. And, in fact, echoing the childhood experimentation in a sister’s closet, I feel that familiar draw to rummaging for meaning in a collection of possibilities, belonging not to me - but maybe….!

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When Shakespeare shifts perspective, it feels like a Saturday night helicopter ride - teasing out an audience’s tolerances and separating myopic tendencies from what is fair and just. In the end, when a play is over, balance is won, men and women seem equally valued and the disguise becomes one-size-fits-all. !

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Spun from this engagement with Shakespeare, his level field of the human and nature, is a deeper appreciation of a sister and creative explorations.!

This, too, is ongoing.!

I am roughly 70 years old.!

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Judy Sigunick!

5/11/15!

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Judy Sigunick!

When Viola Crosses Over 2015!

Ceramic, mixed media!

38 x 13 x 11 in!

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(cover)!

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Judy Sigunick!

When Viola Crosses Over 2015 ! (detail)!

Ceramic, mixed media!

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Judy Sigunick!

Offspring 2014!

Ceramic!

22.5 x 10 x 10 in!

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Judy Sigunick!

When Viola Waits the Coarse 2015!

Ceramic, mixed media!

33 x 13 x 12 in

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Judy Sigunick!

When Viola Turns 2014!

Ceramic, mixed media!

37 x 14 x 14 in

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Judy Sigunick!

When Viola Finds Sebastian 2014!

Ceramic, mixed media!

34 x 14 x 8 in! (wall piece)

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Judy Sigunick!

Benedick 2013!

Ceramic, mixed media!

30 x 18 x 16 in

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Excerpts from an interview with Judy Sigunick ! ! have you always worked in ceramic?! !

(May 2015)!

I began working in ceramic in the 70s as a production potter while raising 3 children. When my youngest was 7, I entered an MFA program in sculpture.

This led me into metals and wood and completely away from functional forms.!

As a young child, I watched - with great longing - my older brother’s development as an artist. He worked with clay into bronze. Unable to hang out with him in his studio, I spent many hours on the beaches of Lake Michigan making sand sculptures, sketching, etc. I was always mindful of his accomplishments, not realizing until much later, his broad and lasting influence on my choice to pursue art.!

! why do you choose this medium over others?! !

When I was in high school, and spending many hours at the Chicago Art Institute, I remember being struck by seeing the Degas horses, cracked clay on armatures, all the more poignantly expressive for the marks and fissures that time and a rigid steel armature created. I began to question “wholeness” and integrity and the moments just before dissolution. How is that cracks seem to define life before and life after? Clays offers the widest range of possible solutions to my preferred form, design, spontaneity in gesture - capturing and suggesting new meanings to explore. !

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I am so familiar (and happy) with clay. It is practically an extension of me.

The stresses and ruptures in my work is how I see most things. Eventually they fall apart, or go away - like theater. It’s our imagination where the excitement begins and, before it gets fired into stone, clay’s fluidity and limitations provide predictable stresses in the surfaces. Knowing steel and concrete widens the architectural potential significantly for me.!

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Type to enter text!

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Untitled with Roses!

2003 - 2013!

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Ceramic, steel and mixed media!

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80 x 47 x 32 in

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Photo Credits! ! !

• When Viola Crosses Over!

• Offspring !

• When Viola Waits the Coarse

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• Benedick!

• When Viola Turns

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• Untitled With Roses !

Lori Grinker!

Stefan Findel Jerry Cohen!

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