Judy Onofrio: Deep Dive
on view June 29, 2024 - January 5, 2025
Judy Onofrio (American, b. 1939), Feast, 2020. Bone, wood, carved wood objects, metallic acrylic paint.
Rochester, Minnesota’s Judy Onofrio creates larger than life sculptures that are covered with collaged bones, glass orbs, thousands of beads, and intricate glass mosaics. Her Baroque flourishes celebrate life’s color, matching perfectly with her sense of humor and creative spirit. It is through her accumulative process that Judy continues to push the boundaries of art and craft, especially how she shares the history that objects contain. The ambitious works in Deep Dive are inspired by underwater flora and fauna, while reflecting on her childhood and earliest memories of living near the ocean.
Judy Onofrio: Deep Dive is curated by Sioux City Art Center Curator, Christopher Atkins, with additional new, never before exhibited works.
Judy Onofrio
Judy Onofrio (b. 1939) is a self-made artist whose art education stemmed from her curiosity and independent spirit. Beginning as a ceramicist in the 1970s, Onofrio explored various materials, creating large-scale installations, sculptural fire performances, and intricately embellished sculptures. Her recent bone-made works highlight life's transitory nature.
Onofrio has been a significant contributor to Minnesota's art scene. She was the founding director of the Minnesota Crafts Council, served as Acting Director of the Rochester Art Center and founded the highly regarded children's Total Art Day Camp at the Rochester Art Center.
She has received multiple awards, including The McKnight Foundation Distinguished Minnesota Artist Award and grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Arts Midwest/NEC, and the Bush Foundation. She is a recipient of the Rochester Art Center Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 A. P. Anderson Award and the Minnesota Crafts Council Lifetime Achievement Award.
Her work is in found in the national and international collections including: The National Gallery of Art, Victoria, Australia; Arabia Museum Helsinki, Finland; The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Renwick Gallery, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Frederick R. Weisman Museum, Minneapolis, MN and over 40 other museum and public collections.
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This activity is made possible through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council in cooperation with a private foundation.
Support Comes From
This exhibition project is presented by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, a nonprofit mission-driven art museum located on the shores of the Upper Mississippi River. MMAM gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from our Board of Directors, the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation, Elizabeth Callender King Foundation, Merchants Bank, and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, individuals, members and volunteers.
Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation
Elizabeth Callender King Foundation
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.