Judy Pfaff’ s work is an invitation—to feel, to move, to experience. In this exclusive conversation, she shares insights on artistic freedom, the relationship between space and light, and the ways beauty, impermanence, and materiality shape her practice.
Ayse Sarioglu : In your Light Years series, you work with neon and resin—materials that embody both light and fragility. Do you think light can have a “sculptural” body?
Judy Pfaff : Hm… yes, in a way. Neon is a strange kind of energy—different from LEDs or incandescent light. I think of it as painterly: it reflects color, creates ambient energy, and brings cheerfulness. Using neon unsupported makes it fragile, playful, almost alive. My background in painting always informs how I use color and light together.
AS : Materials often seem like “companions” in your practice. Which material has guided you most in recent years, and why?
JP : Expanded foams and epoxies have been central. Foams catalyze instantly, freezing with pigments in seconds; epoxies are slower but luminous and clear. They demand alertness, responsiveness—they almost have a mind of their own. I think of them as “cheap glass”: I can work solo or with Joe Upham for neon, but the material itself guides me, opens new ways of thinking.
