Polly Apfelbaum

Polly Apfelbaum is an American contemporary visual artist renowned for her vibrant drawings, sculptures, and fabric floor pieces.

Biography of Polly Apfelbaum

Polly Apfelbaum was born in 1955 in Pennsylvania, USA. In 1978, she received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Since 1978, Apfelbaum has made New York City her home and artistic base. She received her training at SUNY Purchase College in New York.

Since her inaugural solo exhibition in 1986, she has consistently exhibited her work both in the United States and internationally. In 2003, a significant mid-career survey of Apfelbaum's work debuted at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, showcasing her artistic evolution and achievements up to that point.

During her illustrious career, Polly Apfelbaum has received numerous awards, grants and accolades, including:

• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (1987);
• John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Fellowship in Sculpture (1993);
• Joan Mitchell Grant (1999);
• Arts and Letters Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2002);
• Peter S. Reed Artist Grant, New York City (2005);
• Residency Fellowship, National Academy (2011);
• Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Italy (2012);
• Pew Projects Grant and Creative Capital Award (2019);
• Residency Fellowship, MacDowell (2024).

In 2017, she held a prominent solo exhibition featuring her prints at The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., highlighting her mastery.

Her recent solo and duo exhibitions include "The Potential of Women in Outer Space" (with Alice Mackler) at Outer Space in Concord (2024), "Sampling a Sampler Sampling" at Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum at St. John’s College in Annapolis (2024), "These Boots Are Made for Walkin" at Frith Street Gallery in London (2023), "Feed Your Head" (with Gregg Moore) at 56 Henry in New York (2023), and many more.

Additionally, Apfelbaum's works have been featured in numerous group shows held at various galleries and museums worldwide, including Ortega y Gasset Projects, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Cristea Roberts Gallery, Bellvue Arts Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Adams and Ollman, Berggruen Gallery, and Galerie Gisela Clement among other esteemed venues. 

Currently, the artist lives and works in New York, USA.

Polly Apfelbaum's Art Style

Apfelbaum rose to prominence in the 1990s for her distinctive "fallen paintings." These large-scale, 'anti-monumental' installations feature hundreds of hand-cut and hand-dyed pieces of velvet fabric arranged horizontally on the floor. Blurring the lines between painting and sculpture, these works inhabit a space that defies traditional genre distinctions.

She creates her woodblock prints through a process of improvisation, assembling compositions from multiple individually carved and inked blocks. Working with as many as hundreds of blocks simultaneously, she uses vibrant colors to form abstract motifs in her prints.