Judy Hoffman (artist)
Judy Hoffman is an American artist living and working in New York City. Hoffman’s work, which includes installation, sculpture,[1] and artist books, explores themes of birth, decay, waste, and regeneration. Combining disparate elements of industrial refuse, natural debris and handmade paper, she constructs microcosms, ecosystems, and other natural formations.
“Her fascination with making things is evident in the magical way that she combines and constructs disparate elements. Hoffman sees the potential for abject scavenged objects to become something else. It’s as if a crumpled piece of wire calls out to her from the sidewalk, ‘I’m lively. Take me. I could be something,’” wrote Jennifer McGregor, curator at Wave Hill in Bronx, New York.
Hoffman’s environmental installations bring a wildness to manmade spaces. Her site specific installation venues in New York City include Wave Hill, Ceres Gallery, Nutureart, Proteus Gowanus, Kentler International Drawing Center and the Nathan Cummings Foundation; Rutgers and Jersey City Universities, New Jersey; Mary Grove College, Detroit; and the Bienalle Bonn/Frauen Museum and Kunstler Forum in Bonn, Germany.
Hoffman’s artist books are sculpted from handmade paper. Her Wild Book, Tree and Leaf Text series are improvisations on the structures of plant and animal life. They are included in the special collections at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design and Long Island University libraries, the Brooklyn Museum, the Alan Chasnanoff Bookworks Collection, and the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.
Hoffman attended the New York Studio School and received her B.A. from Grinnell College. She is a recipient of grants from the Women’s Studio Workshop and the Brooklyn Arts Council. Hoffman lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.