The COMMA Fine Art Gallery presents a two-woman show – “Recurrence + Resistance ” — combining new and previously unseen work by Judy Hodge and Mary Joy Murphy, as its next exhibition, on view from January 6 to February 2, 2024.

Judy Hodge is an exhibiting member of the Buffalo Society of Artists. Her bold use of color and expressionism is, as she says, “…about movement, light, energy and the power of and my personal connection to holy nature. I call my work modern impressionism. It is bold, painterly and designed to evoke a strong sense of place. I paint the emotions and mood of the places I walk.”

She holds a BFA in Painting and an MA in Painting and Computer Science. Mentors include Walter Prochownik, Seymour Drummlevitch and Tony Conrad. She is influenced by: Canadian Group of Seven, Charles Burchfield and VanGogh.

After 25+ years as a creative director for advertising agencies in Orlando, Scottsdale, Boston and Buffalo, she returned to painting in 2014. In 2009, she worked with Academy Award winner Gerda Weissmann Klein to illustrate Weissman Klein’s book, “One Raspberry.” She is a two-time recipient of the Buffalo Society of Artists Gold medal, in 2017 and again in 2021 and is a former BSA board member. 

Hodge’s “April Pointe” was recently accepted as part of the permanent collection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Her work can also be found in galleries, museums, private and corporate collections in the US, Canada and Japan.

“Recurrence + Resistance ” brings together curated examples of Hodge’s new body of work exploring bold gestures, rhythmic motion and negative space together with a new series of work by Mary Joy Murphy.

Mary Joy Murphy is a Buffalo artist, an advocate for the arts, an active community board

member, and a volunteer for many Western New York organizations. She is known throughout the region for promoting local artists and the arts. Best-known accomplishment to date is her involvement in “Herd About Buffalo,” a widely popular and highly regarded fundraising collaboration between the Burchfield-Penney Art Center and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Her most recent solo show, Color in Motion, included fifty abstract paintings at the Carnegie Art Center. This body of paintings was influenced by her years as a textile printer, her year-long travel, and her passion for texture. Her current work explores the bold graphic work she is known for in black and white and makes use of natural beeswax as a resist, to explore negative space and repetitive patterns and mark making. 

An opening reception will be held from 12 pm – 5 pm on Saturday, January 6 and will be on view through February 3. An artist’s talk will be held on Saturday, January 20. 

The COMMA is also welcoming submissions from artists for its next group show, KNOWN, IMAGINED, EXPERIENCED, through January 13. More information can be found on www.thecommafineart.com.