Media Kit - Judy Rifka: A Glance Through The Rearview Mirror

“The trick is to make it appear that the innovator ripped it off from you. A good example of this principle is the case of Judy Rifka’s work at the debut of the 70’s. Her Single Shapes on plywood are among the most important paintings of the decade.” - Rene Ricard, Dec 1981, "The Radiant Child", ArtForum

In his essay for the exhibition, the American curator Gregory de la Haba writes: “Rifka aims to capture line and forms positing in space as well its trajectory in space and its concomitant wake reverberating outward and within the four-walled holding cell —the 4'x4’ plywood panel used mostoften for these single shapepaintings. Thesesimple yet majestic forms are allowed to ‘dance’, she says, on the panel and by way of layering and building-up of handmade paint they slowly and painstakingly emerge as ‘morphing fields’, a body-form that ricochets within and without and builds momentum, a centrifugal-like force that emanates off the picture plane and exists markedly, agelessly, in the face of Postmoderism’s gaze. This movement dictates direction and hence allows the form to dictate design, starts designing itself, and trajects forward.“

Judy Rifka and her son at the studio, 1978. (c) Judy Rifka and PULPO GALLERY