Innovations in shape, color

YOUNGSTOWN -- Visit The Butler Institute of American Art this month and you will encounter new exhibitions that are sure to enlighten and entertain.
Now on view the Butler second floor galleries is an exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Judy Pfaff. (This show, titled Selected Works, 1988-1992 continues through April, and is made possible in part by Eleanor Beecher Flad.)
Pfaff is a sculptor, installation artist, painter and printmaker, and her work is often described as painting made more three-dimensional, and sculpture made more painterly.
Born in 1946 in Great Britain, this American artist has since the 1970s worked with a wide and unusual range of materials. The 20 works in the Butler show are typical of Pfaff's large-scale installations in that they are complex, unique, dynamic constructions that include man-made and found materials.
According to Butler Director Louis Zona, "Judy Pfaff has been one of the most innovative artists working in America and this exhibition is a demonstration of her creative energy and vitality. Anyone viewing a Pfaff work for the first time is in for a treat since she alters our preconception of abstract art. She also breaks down the barriers between painting and sculpture in exciting ways."
Pfaff earned a bachelor's degree in 1971 from Washington University (St. Louis) and a master's in 1973 from Yale University. In 2004 she received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Pfaff has mounted more than 100 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 200 group exhibitions.
Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In the Butler's Beecher Center galleries are three new installation works by avant-garde artist Michael Hardesty. This show will continue through October 16, 2005.
These intriguing exhibitions feature video, atmospheric invention, creative audio and exquisitely crafted sculptural elements.
Back to school
Through May 22 at the Butler's Trumbull branch, 9350 E. Market St. in Howland Township, is "Educators/Educated: Jewelry and Metal in Ohio."
The rich legacy of metals programs at Ohio's colleges and universities is the inspiration for this exhibition, a vibrant introduction to work created between 1955 and 2004 by current and former faculty as well as selected alumni from six highly regarded, degree-granting jewelry and metals programs in the state. The exhibition includes a breadth of creative ideas and highly personal forms ranging from elegant to quirky and from historic to contemporary.
Artists and educators are included from Bowling Green University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Kent State University, Miami University, Ohio Wesleyan and the University of Akron. More than 140 objects are on display as part of the exhibition curated by Gail M. Brown, curator of contemporary craft at the Riffe Gallery (Columbus, Ohio) where this show was first exhibited.
New masters
And on view through May 29 at the Butler's Salem branch, 343 E. State St., are "New Master Drawings from the Akron Art Museum Collection." The Akron Art Museum's galleries are currently closed for expansion, and that institution is collaborating with the Butler's Salem facility to present this exhibit of the museum's drawings.
The show includes the work of Laurence Channing, Robert Robbins and Zena Zipporah. This show was organized by the Akron Art Museum and made possible by a gift from Malone Advertising.
XThe Butler and its branch museums will be closed Easter Sunday, March 27. Regular Butler hours in Youngstown are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Butler hours at the Trumbull branch are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Butler Salem hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to all three facilities is free.