Judi Tavill (b. 1968, Baltimore, MD) is an artist who lives and works in Rumson, NJ. She received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO (1990) which led to a career as a fashion designer, later shifting to life as a ceramic studio potter and fine craft artist. Completing a postgraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth (2021) marked the movement of her practice into the contemporary art world.
Tavill’s ceramic sculpture has been curated into many exhibitions, including the New Jersey Arts Annual (2022) at the Trenton State Museum and several international juried exhibitions, including those held at The Hunterdon Art Museum, The Center for Contemporary Art, and The Monmouth Museum. Her sculptural work has been shown her work throughout the United States and has been highlighted through The Ivy Brown Gallery (NYC, NY), Cavin-Morris Gallery (NYC, NY), and Galerie Lucida (Red Bank, NJ). Solo showings of her current work are planned for May of 2024 at the Ivy Brown Gallery (NYC, NY) in November of 2024 at Adahmah Ceramics (Columbus, OH), and The Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, NJ) in the Spring of 2025.
She has recently participated in the Vermont Studio Center Residency and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts Residency and has been invited to the Buffalo Creek Arts Center Residency, where she will spend the month of August further exploring her sculptural work with ceramics. Tavill’s work is in the permanent collection of the Flint Art Museum, as well as many private collections.
Judi Tavill’s solo show ‘Entanglements’ is on view through June 26, 2024, at Ivy Brown Gallery, New York.
Visit Judi Tavill’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Entanglements, 2020-2023
I blend sculpture and drawing, creating biomorphic abstractions that range from intimate to immersive in scale and allude to the experience of connection and entanglement.
Employing the malleable, additive and subtractive qualities of clay, I build curvilinear sculpture toggling between line as form, form as line. Post-firing, I cold-finish the fired ceramic surface by layering drawn lines of graphite onto a painted matte ground. Sculpture and drawing intertwines to infuse the work with an energy that emanates from within and radiates outward like a palpable vibration.
Informed by neural pathways, root systems, and social structures, this work serves as visual representation of the intricate matrices found in our biological, natural and societal systems that define our physical and intangible realities inviting contemplation and reflection.
