Colour is the key element in Polly Apfelbaum's work, both visually and structurally. Her floorbound installations - which incorporate hundreds of pieces of velvet, hand-dyed in bold hues and often arranged in sprawling configurations that appear to be organically inspired - defy categories of art-making. Like abstract paintings that melted off the wall and formed vibrant puddles, her arrangements of irregularly shaped rounds, diamonds and ovals coalesce with the physical presence of sculpture, while maintaining painting's sense of vibrancy. Her series of prints Love me Tender revisit Warholian flower iconography that she has referenced in previous works. Apfelbaum produces flowers with her own hand, allowing gesture and accident to take their places within the works. Each flower is influenced by its neighbour's scale and tone, the whole image is then reproduced as a unique monoprint.
Polly Apfelbaum's recent solo exhibitions include: Good and Plenty, Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria (2005); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2004); Today I Love Everybody, Triple Candie, Harlem, New York (2002); Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2000). She had her first solo exhibition in the UK at Frith Street gallery earlier this year 29 June - 17 August 2007.
Please click on the News section of the site to read about forthcoming exhibitions and projects.
BIOGRAPHY
1955
Born Abington, Pennsylvania
1978
BFA, Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
SUNY at Purchase, Purchase, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007
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COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
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2007 Frith Street Gallery
Basic Divisions, Dieu Donne, New York
Love Sculpture, Firth Street Gallery, London
Lovecraft, Solvent Space, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
Love Street, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Flags of Revolt and Defiance, Print Publishers Spotlight: The Leroy Nieman Center for Print Studies Columbia University, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
Cartoon Garden, D'Amelio Terras, New York
Good and Plenty, Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria
Crazy Love, Love Crazy, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, curated by Shannon Fitzgerald
What Does Love Have To Do With It?, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, curated by Lisa Tung (catalogue)
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 2 - July 27; travels to Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio,
December 5 - February 29, 2004; Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri June 4 - September 5, 2004 (catalogue)
Today I Love Everybody, Triple Candie, Harlem, NY
Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Powerpuff, D'Amelio Terras, New York, New York
Skin and Bones, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. (catalogue)
Karyn Lovegrove, Los Angeles, California
Galeria Camargo Vilaca, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art NYKY, Helsinki, Finland. (catalogue)
D'Amelio Terras, New York, New York
Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
Realismusstudio der NGBK, KÈnstlerhaus Am Acker, Berlin, Germany. (brochure)
Boesky & Callery Fine Arts, New York, New York
Hirschl and Adler Modern, New York, New York
Project Room: Postmasters Gallery, New York, New York
Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York. (brochure)
Galerie Etienne Ficheroulle, Brussels, Belgium
Amy Lipton Gallery, New York, New York
Galerie Etienne Ficheroulle, Brussels, Belgium
Sue Spaid Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
Amy Lipton Gallery, New York, New York
Special Projects, P.S.1, Long Island City, New York
Loughelton Gallery, New York, New York
Loughelton Gallery, New York, New York
Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York
Paulo Salvador Gallery, New York, New York
Pink, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai
Conversations, Travesia Cuatro, Madrid
Comic Abstraction: Image Breaking, Image Making, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Like Color in Pictures, Aspen Art Museum
Resonance, Frith Street Gallery, London
Contemporary Masterworks: St. Louis Collects, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO
Selections from the Leroy Neiman Center for Print Studies-Columbia University, Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY
Print Run: An exhibition of Prints, Frith Street Gallery, London
Eccentric Modern The Foundation To-Life, Inc., Mount Kisco, NY
Frontiers: Collecting the Art of Our Time, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Very Early Pictures, Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, CA; travels to Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside, PA
Polly Apfelbaum, Katherina Grosse, Karin Sander, Jessica Stockholder Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria
The Shape of Color, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
One-Armed Bandit, D'Amelio Terras, New York, NY
In the Abstract, Angles Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
30 Ways to Make a Painting, Carl Solway Gallery, Cinncinnatti,OH
Color/Pattern/Grid: Selections from the Austin Museum of Art, The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
POPulence, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX; Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland OH; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston- Salem, NC
Extreme Abstraction, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Lodz Biennale, Lodz, Poland
Live Forever, or Die Trying (manic abstract painting now), Torch Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, curated by Twan Janssen, October 16- November 20, 2004
Soft Edge, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, curated by Staci Boris
Cakewalk, Ambrrosino Gallery, Miami, FL, curated by Jen DeNike
Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
Optimo: Manifestations of Optimism in Contemporary Art, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
The 179th Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy Museum, New York, NY
Settlements, Musee d'art Moderne, La Terrasse, Saint-Etienne, France, curated by Lorand Heygi
Kunst Stoff, Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria
A Kind of Bliss, The Drawing Room, London, UK, organized by Kate McFarlane, et al; travels to Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, Coventry, England
Celebrating Sculpture: Modern and Contemporary Works from Dallas Collections, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Hover: Polly Apfelbaum and Pae White, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
Plingeling, Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden
NYPD: New York Pattern & Decoration, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, curated by Michael Duncan
Bienal de Valencia, various locations, Valencia, Spain
Splat, Boom, Pow: The Influence of Cartoons on Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Stacked, D'Amelio Terras, New York, NY
Support/Surface Prescient: Then and Now, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Program, Long Island City, NY, curated by Saul Ostrow
Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Polly Apfelbaum and Beatriz Milhazes, D'Amelio Terras, New York
Sprawl, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, curated by Sue Spaid
Spookie Knowledge, Pearl, London
Kraft Puffar Kammare rot System, Skulpturens Hus, Stockholm, Sweden
Officina America, Galeria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
The Eye of the Beholder, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland
Points, Lines, Plans, Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France
Six Contemporary Artists, Clifford Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. Curated by Michael Jenkins
Best of Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Patterns: Between Object and Arabesque, Kunsthallen Brandts Kladefabrik, Denmark
Operativo, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Sculpture as Field, Kunstverein Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany. (catalogue)
The Return of the Real: A Selection from the Daniel Hechter Art Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
All About Paint, The University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis, Tennessee. Curated by Holly Block
Waterworks: U.S.Akvarell 2001, Nordiska Akvarellmeseet, Skarhamn, Sweden. Curated by Kim Levin. (catalogue)
As Painting: Division and Displacement, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio. (catalogue)
Drawing, Frith Street Gallery, London England
Objective Color, Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut
Making the Making, curated by Charles Goldman, Apex Art, New York, New York. (brochure)
Painting Pushed to Extremes, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
Paint Land, curated by Terry R. Myers, Lemon Sky Project, Los Angeles, California
Live From New York, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
Painting Function: Making It Real, SPACES, Cleveland, Ohio
soft corner hard edge, Blackwood Gallery, The University of Toronto at Mississauga. Traveling to Galerie Christiane Chassay, Montreal, Quebec
Chromaform: Color in Sculpture, curated by Frances Colpitt, Nevada Institute for Contemporary Art, Las Vegas, Nevada. Traveled onto New Mexico State University Art Gallery, Las Cruces, New Mexico and to the University of Texas Art Gallery (catalogue)
The Body in Question: Tracing, Displacing, and Remaking the Human Figure in Contemporary Art, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Neither/Nor, Grand Arts, Kansas City, Missouri. (brochure)
Postmark: An Abstract Effect, curated by Louis Grachos and Bruce W. Ferguson, Site Santa Fe, New Mexico. (catalogue)
Hindsight, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Everyday, organized by Jonathan Watkins, 11th Biennale of Sydney, Australia. (catalogue)
Colorfields, curated by David Pagel, Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Polly Apfelbaum and Tony Feher, Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. (brochure)
Abstract Painting, Once Removed, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas. (catalogue) Traveled onto The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, Missouri
Humble County, D'Amelio Terras, New York, New York
Painting Objectives, Galerie Evelyne Canus, France
Decorative Strategies, The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. (brochure)
Spatiotemporal, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konstall, Stockholm, Sweden. (catalogue)
Alternative Measures, curated by Susan M. Canning, College of New Rochelle, New York. (catalogue)
Homemade Champagne, organized by David Pagel, Claremont Graduate University, California. (catalogue)
Conversations: Polly Apfelbaum and Lynn McCarty, Art Resources Transfer Inc., New York, New York. (brochure)
Polly Apfelbaum/Lucky Debellevue, Dalarnas Museum, Falun, Sweden
Simple Form, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
Hanging By A Thread, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York. (catalogue)
Divergent Models, curated by Saul Ostrow, Nassauischer Kunstverein Weisbaden e.V., Germany. (catalogue)
Other, 4th Biennale D'art Contemporain de Lyon, France, curated by Harald Szeemann. (catalogue)
Women's Work: Examining the Feminine in Contemporary Painting, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (brochure)
Sculpture, James Graham & Sons, New York, New York
Onomatopoeia, curated by Anthony Iannacci, Studio La CittsØ, Verona, Italy. (brochure)
Fashion Moda, curated by Lisa Marks, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland,Ohio. (brochure)
After the Fall, curated by Lilly Wei, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York. (catalogue)
Vraiment: feminisme et art, curated by Laura Cottingham, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France. (catalogue)
Painting - The Extended Field, Magasin 3 Stockholm, Sweden (catalogue). Traveled to Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden
Der Fleck, curated by Dr. Peter Flunken, Galerie Im Kornerpark, Berlin, Germany
Painting In An Expanding Field, curated by Saul Ostrow, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
The Kingdom of Flora, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Painting Outside Painting, 44th Corcoran Painting Biennial, curated by Terri Sultan, Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C. (catalogue)
Skew: Un-Ruly Painting, Gallery 400, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois
Raw, Postmasters Gallery, New York, New York
Tampering: Artists and Abstraction Today, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. (brochure)
Permanent Collection Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
Color: sign, system, sensibility, Stark Gallery, New York, New York
30th Anniversary of the Israel Museum, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Pittura-immedia, Neue Galerie am Lndesmuseum Joanneum Graz, Austria. (catalogue)
D.I.Y., curated by Paul Ha, White Columns, New York, NY
The Social Fabric, Beaver College Gallery, Glenside, Pennsylvania. (catalogue)
Sense and Sensibility: Women and Minimalism in the 90's, curated by Lynn Zelevansky, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York. (catalogue)
Polly Apfelbaum/Tony Feher/Claudia Matzko, Patrick Callery Gallery, New York, New York
Legend In My Living Room, curated by Terry R. Myers, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. (brochure)
Empty Dress: Clothing as Surrogate in Recent Art, curated by Nina Felshin. Traveling exhibition 1993-1996,organized and circulated by ICI, New York, New York. (catalogue)
Future Perfect, curated by Dan Cameron, Heiligenkreuuzerhof, Vienna, Austria. (catalogue)
Yours, curated by Michael Jenkins, Wooster Gardens, New York, New York
Anti-Masculine..., curated by Bill Arning, Kim Light Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Mssr. B's Curio Shop, curated by Saul Ostrow, Threadwaxing Space, New York, New York. (catalogue)
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, curated by Terry Myers, Amy Lipton Gallery, New York, New York. (brochure)
Plastic Fantastic Lover, objet a, curated by Catherine Liu, BlumHelman Warehouse, New York, New York. (catalogue)
When objects dream and talk in their sleep, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, New York
All Quiet on the Western Front, Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris, France. (catalogue)
A Force of Repetition, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey. (catalogue)
Je Viens de Chez le Charcutier..., Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris, France
Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden
Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusettes
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conneticuit
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