About the artist:

Judy Rifka, video artist, book artist and abstract painter, is a multi-faceted artist who has worked in a variety of media in addition to her painting and printmaking. She was born in 1945 in New York City and studied art at Hunter College, the New York Studio School and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Her printmaking includes themes of the Italian Renaissance with church facades and According to critic Ann Shengold, "Rifka's work has been characterized by an agitated, often thick, black line which has become a kind of shorthand for her subjects: figures, architecture, and everyday objects. Her iconography describes the city she resides in, the places she travels to, and the events that are reported in the media. The work is quite frequently laced with visual and verbal puns." Rifka's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; New York Public Library, New York City; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts; University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; and Staatliche Museum, Berlin, Germany. Her one-person exhibitions include New York City venues of Franklin Furnace, in 1977, and Printed Matter, in 1980; Museum fur Kultur, in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, in 1981; Knight Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1984; and an installation in Gracie Mansion, the residence of the Mayor in New York City, in 1985. A catalogue of a show in which Rifka participated, "Nine from Carolina: An Exhibition of Women Artists", was published in 1989 by the combined efforts of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the North Carolina State Committee. Selected Solo Exhibitions 2007: Chocolate Factory, New York City 2001: Gallery X, New York City 1997: Alley Culture Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 1994: "Judy Rifka", Information Gallery, New York City 1991: "Judy Rifka Drawings 1980-1990", Brooke Alexander, New York City 1991: "Judy Rifka: Paintings and Works on Paper", Ratner Gallery (Chicago), Galerie Tobias Hirshmann (Frankfurt, Germany), Ann Jaffee Gallery (Bay Harbor Islands, Florida) 1988: Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York City 1988: Galerie Tobias Hischmann, Frankfurt, Germany 1988: Galerie Ninety-Nine, Miami 1987: Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles 1987: Brooke Alexander, New York City 1986: Anna Friebe Galerie, Cologne 1986: "Judy Rifka Paintings", Cleveland Museum of Art 1986: Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California 1985: Brooke Alexander, New York City 1985: Anna Friebe Galerie, New York City 1984: "Judy Rifka: Major Works 1981-84" (Charlotte, North Carolina and the Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, Galerie de France (Paris), Brooke Alexander (NYC), 51x Gallery, (NYC), Carl Solway Gallery (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1983: Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London 1983: Brooke Alexander (NYC), Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco, California 1982: Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York City 1981: Museum (Sub) Kulture, Berlin and Hamburg, Germany 1980: Printed Matter, New York City 1978: Jean Paul Najar, Paris 1977: Franklin Furnace, New York 1976: Susan Caldwell, New York 1975: Daniel Weinberg Gallery (San Francisco); Artists Space (NYC) 1974: John Doyle Gallery, Chicago