Judy Sigunick “Vanishing Boundaries: Sculpture”

The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery

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The Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery presents the forthcoming exhibition Vanishing Boundaries: Sculpture by Judy Sigunick. This exhibition showcases Sigunick’s recent works, presenting 39 sculptures and 10 wall sculptures addressing boundaries such as social class, political differences and the human-nature divide. Her metaphorical works take us on a journey of construction, deconstruction and questioning of established beliefs. It is in the details of Sigunick’s sculptures that borders are crossed and barriers are collapsed into imagination.

Like a Shakespearean Bard astutely illuminating the intrinsic folly of presupposition, Sigunick poetically questions the limitations set by man and nature. Included in the show are works exploring her fascination with elephants, territorial creatures by nature, which nevertheless cross into unknown territories from lack of water, sometimes trampling men and man-made structures. In Rosalind’s Voyage, the artist juxtaposes the paradoxical interdependence of man and animal. The two seem to be intertwined in a contrasting yet harmonious dialogue represented through the morphed delineation of each figure.

Included in the show are large sculptures of heads, inspired by Shakespeare, in which Sigunick pushes the limits of the tendency of wet clay to slump. Employing the medium of clay infused with paper pulp that behaves like wood when dry, the artist transgresses the medium’s characteristic material confines. Fissures and cracks reveal their own story of beauty through brokenness and dissolution of limitations. These works are representative of Sigunick’s rekindled enthusiasm for Shakespeare and her immersion into his poetic realm.

The Memory Pots, a series created during the days following 9/11, present a first-hand experience of vanishing horizons, as the artist was trying to make sense of the inexplicable. Drawing on her interest in traditional Korean ceramics and techniques – celadon glazes and low-fired earthenware storage vessels – in the Memory Pots, the artist simultaneously celebrates and mourns the loss of traditional certainties.

Judy Sigunick grew up on the south side of Chicago, a short bus ride from the Chicago Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry and just 2 blocks from a rocky beach of Lake Michigan – all of which eventually inspired and contributed to her artistic pursuits. After receiving a BA from the University of Illinois, she worked as a child advocate for the Cook County Department of Social Services for several years. She first moved to New York City, and then continued her work in human services in London. One year later, she returned to the US, settling in upstate NY where she worked as a production potter for 10 years. In the early 1990s, Sigunick decided to pursue her dreams and earned her MFA from the State University at New Paltz. She shares her time between studio, teaching, writing and running.

In 1995, she was awarded her first NYSCA public art grant from the Women’s Studio Workshop. Her goal was to unite multiple values into her designs through incorporation of community artwork resulting in a collaborative and educational strategy. Select public commissions include the Morse School Hudson River Mural in Poughkeepsie NY, Mill Street Loft in Poughkeepsie, NY, Anderson School for Autism, Hyde Park, NY, Ulster County Poorhouse Memorial in New Paltz, NY, a life sized rhino in Rosendale, NY, and a 60- foot concrete whale on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie NY. Artist residency fellowships consist of the Vermont Studio Center and Market Street Art Center.