2017 Catalogue Archive

American artist Judy Onofrio is best known for her figurative assemblages constructed from ceramics, glass, metal, carved wood, paint and beads. Lush worlds of people, animals and objects are conjured from a lavish delight in the glitter and glamour of sparkly materials and bold colors. While this piece lacks the stories of her sculptures, it shares the same joy in excess. A circle is encrusted with seed beads and glass beads of different sizes and colors, as if some strange natural process of spheres swelling and pulsing with life has been frozen in time and transformed into adornment for the wrist. Onofrio’s adornment and sculpture resides in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York; the MFA Houston; and the National Gallery of Australia.