Polly Apfelbaum (b. 1955, USA) is an American artist whose makes large-scale installations of textiles, ceramics and drawings framed by wider political contexts and the legacy of post-war American art. Apfelbaum combines a variety of media with eye-catching colours and patterns to blur the lines between painting, sculpture and installation, while also exploring the boundaries between art and handicraft. She chooses materials, such as textiles and ceramics, that are usually found in the domestic realm, and emphasises their essential qualities, especially colour and texture. In this way, Apfelbaum assumes a political and feminist position, challenging hierarchies in cultural practice.
Apfelbaum is based in New York. Selected recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include those at Mitchell Art Museum, St John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, USA (2024); Frith Street Gallery, London, UK (2023, 2017 and 2014); Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University, Georgia, USA (2023); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2022); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2018); Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria (2018); National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA (2017); and 56 Henry, New York, NY, USA (2015). Recent selected group exhibitions include: ’13 Women: Variation II’, Orange County Art Museum, Costa Mesa, California, USA (2023); ‘Imaginary Friends’, Juan Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain (2023); ‘Parliament of Plants II’, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (2023); ‘Fun Feminism’, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland (2022); ‘The Flames: The Age of Ceramics’, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France (2021); ‘Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection’, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, USA (2020); ‘Less is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design’, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Boston, MA, USA (2019); ‘Painter’s Reply: Experimental Painting in the 1970s and Now’, Lisson Gallery, New York, NY, USA (2019); ‘Pattern and Decoration: Ornament as Promise’, mumok, Vienna, Austria (2019); ‘An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection’, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2017); ‘An Irruption of the Rainbow: Color in 20th Century Art’, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2016); ‘Routes of Influences, Critical Gestures’, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA (2016); ‘Making and Unmaking’ (curated by Duro Olowu), Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2016); and ‘Found’ (curated by Cornelia Parker), The Foundling Museum, London, UK (2016). In 2021, Apfelbaum was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, Italy. Her work has been acquired by public collections around the world. Apfelbaum is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.