When Judy Pfaff was named a winner of a coveted MacArthur “genius grant” in 2004, her selection seemed not only eminently logical but virtually self-evident.
While some artists feel fortunate to gain recognition in one medium, Pfaff has managed to excel in at least three – installation, painting and drawing, and printmaking.
The last of these pursuits is something of a sidelight for many artists, something they do sporadically in addition to their regular work. But Pfaff takes the medium very seriously.
The veteran New York artist has produced some of the most innovative and complex original prints of the past few decades – engrossing images that, in many cases, transcend the medium and hold their own alongside artworks of any kind.
Ten of Pfaff’s most recent forays into printmaking and a 1999 multimedia drawing can be seen through Feb. 18 in a small but potent exhibition at the Robischon Gallery.
Like her paintings and drawings, these works involve overlapping, interrupted imagery and a collision of sometimes unorthodox techniques, including the incorporation of encaustic and acrylic paint.
Some of these works continue her recent fascination with Victoriana and domesticity, especially her emphasis on patterned imagery – dots, geometric shapes and floral motifs – that strongly suggests wallpaper or fabrics.
A prime example is the aptly titled “Queen Anne” (2002), a 25-by-55-inch print with a central rectangle filled with a bold red-and-gold etched wallpaper pattern. Surrounding it is a black-and-white band with the pattern of cracked paint transferred via a kind of relief-block technique.
Four of the 2005 efforts involve floral imagery in some way, including the amazing, two-part “OXO-XOX.” Its upper layer consists of a kind of vaguely biomorphic mirror image on corrugated paper.
Punched into it are dozens of tiny holes, allowing viewers a glimpse at an underlying composition with a bright red swirling pattern. The two layers combine to create a startlingly multidimensional work.
Other highlights include “Ukbar, Ucbar, Ooqbar, Ookbar, Oukbar” (2002), with its kind of manic Spirograph-like swirls, and “Light or Dark Half” Nos. 1 and 2 (2005), which have the silhouetted look of photograms.
Providing an ideal complement to Pfaff’s show is Robischon’s concurrent presentation of nine intriguingly related, multimedia pieces by Ana Maria Hernando, an Argentinian-born artist who has lived in Boulder for 10 years.
Hernando also explores domesticity in her pieces, recontextualizing and revitalizing otherwise hokey, 1950s-era needlework patterns from South America, and overlaying them with brash, loose drawings of magnolias and other flowers.
A typical example is “Brugmansia Candida 1,” the title referring to the Latin name for white angel’s trumpet. The flower, rendered in blue, radiates across a 29 1/2-by-43 1/2-inch photographic reproduction of a sheet of the variegated needlework patterns.
Like Pfaff, Hernando delights in layering, though in a more whimsical, open manner. She also incorporates cutouts, giving her works on paper a doily-like quality, yet another similarity with the artist’s better-known counterpart.
This layering is especially evident in “Los Aberturas, Los Organos que Esperan,” a wonderfully festive lithographic diptych with boldly rendered orange and fuchsia blooms atop a green floral pattern and myriad pink dots.
In these fresh, sophisticated works, Hernando manages to make a sociopolitical point, explore elements of pattern and decoration and be a little playful at the same time – an appealing combination.
This exhibition is Hernando’s first at the Robischon Gallery. Let’s hope there are more. She deserves greater recognition, both locally and beyond.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
Judy Pfaff and Ana Maria Hernando
Through Feb. 18|Art exhibition|Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee St.|Free|11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays (303-298-7788 or robischongallery.com)
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MICHAEL BURROWS There is nothing avant- garde about this Denver artist’s 14 drawings, which remain on view through Saturday at the William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee St. Instead, he is something of an old-fashioned realist, a refreshing antidote to the obssessive trendiness of much of today’s art world.
Although Burrows works in a variety of media, including watercolor and colored pencil, most striking might be his exquisite graphite renderings of Western and Southwestern landscapes, including such beauties as “Susans” and “Cottonwoods.” 303-893-2360 or williamhavugallery.com.
COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHY Good news for photography fans who might have missed this important exhibition: Gallery Sink, 2301 W. 30th Ave., has extended “Early Colorado Contemporary Photography” through March 19. It focuses much- deserved attention on such figures as Arnold Gassan and Jim Milmoe. 303-455-5601 or gallerysink.com.
-Kyle MacMillan
