Judith Modrak Studio
Judith Modrak is a Washington, D.C. born, New York City based sculptor and installation artist whose work embraces art and science. She is fascinated by what goes on inside and outside of us.
Category: Artist/Individual
Discipline: Public Art
Program Affiliations: Artist Roster
About Judith Modrak Studio
Judith Modrak
Preferred Pronouns: she/her/hers
judith@judithmodrak.com
917-991-6167
https://judithmodrak.com
Our Memories, a participatory artwork, Central Park, NY
Our Memories
Our Memories explores how memories are encoded, stored and formed. Participants transformed the sculptures by recalling a formative event from their lives and then depositing an emotive color-coded memory stone. The stones represented six primary emotions: love, anger, surprise, joy, fear and sadness. The Our Memories project is both a collective memorial piece, made complete by thousands of individual memories from people all over the world, and an experience that connects us to our core and to one another.
Endangered Fossils, Santa Clarita, CA
Endangered Fossils
Endangered Fossils, is currently on view in Santa Clarita, CA, as part of the City Public Art collection (2022-2025). Endangered Fossils traveled to Santa Clarita after a year long installation in Flushing Meadows Corona Park as part of the NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program. Endangered Fossils represent an imagined archaeological excavation and the discovery of a new organism. The work is inspired by the trilobites, brachiopods and crinoids who flourished during the Devonian period, ~300 million years ago. These crab, clam and starfish like organisms lived in marine environments very similar to the coral reefs of today. The sculpture pays homage to our beloved Mother Earth at a critical time requiring everyone’s involvement. The artwork seeks to engage the public in considering the origins of our ecosystem and our symbiotic role and responsibility to that environment.
Nurturing Tree, Wisconsin
Nurturing Tree
Nurturing Tree, a permanent public art commission, will be installed in the Spring of 2024 in Wisconsin. Nurturing Tree explores connections to our families, communities, ancestors, each other, and the environment. The sculpture aims to engage the public in considering the cycle of regeneration and healing, on a personal and environmental level, in a welcoming and nurturing way. Photo is a mock-up of the sculpture in situ.
Public Artist Art Roster
Many of Judith Modrak's participatory installations and free-standing sculptural works present science and nature in an accessible and non-threatening way. The works serve as a gateway to understanding ourselves and by extension our shared humanity and the world we inhabit more fully. She is drawn to the powerful geography of the Southwest as a visual reminder of the past, the present and the soon to be future.
She has created many temporary and permanent public artworks. "Endangered Fossils", is currently on view as part of the City of Santa Clarita’s public art program. "Nurturing Tree", a permanent public artwork, will be installed in Wisconsin in 2024. "Our Memories”, a participatory public art installation in New York City’s Central Park was commissioned as part of New York City Parks’ Art in the Parks Program in 2019. Modrak's studio practice greatly informs her work in the public realm and has been exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe for over two decades. Engagement with students, adults and children, through lectures and workshops, is an ongoing stream of activity in her practice and a crucial one. Projects such as “Cartographies of the Mind” continue to morph and change as a result of ongoing pilots with Pratt and other institutions.
Modrak strongly views public art as a catalyst for positive growth and connection. She very much looks forward to collaborating on projects with the larger Arizona community!
