NetWorks Rhode Island and the Chazan Collection Exhibition, WaterFire Arts Center (2024) Bio:
John Udvardy was born in Elyria, Ohio of Hung Ancestry arian. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He earned his MFA from Yale University. The Mary C. Page Scholarship allowed him to travel through Europe, Scandinavia, Spain and North Africa. He has worked at a variety of different jobs, including working in the steel mills of Lorain, Ohio with his father, as well as being a brakeman on the New Haven Railroad while he was a graduate student at Yale. During the late fifties while living in Greenwich Village, he worked in a snap factory in the Garment District of New York and in a spindle shop in Brooklyn. To maintain his studio and support himself while living in Boston, he worked as a sign painter there and in Cambridge, Mass. He was a specialist in an artillery battalion while serving in the Army. John Udvardy has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Yale University, Brown University and he was Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. He is a full Professor and has taught Three Dimensional Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as being the Chairman of the Foundation Studies Program and Director of the Summer Transfer Program for many years. He has an extensive exhibition record, exhibiting widely throughout the United States in many group and one person shows, some of which include: Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire • Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio • Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire • Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida. John Udvardy has also exhibited at, and been represented by the following galleries: • Obelisk Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts • Michael Walls Gallery, San Francisco, California • The Sara Roby Foundation, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts • Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island • The Roland Gibson Art Foundation, Potsdam, New York • Suzette Schochet Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island • The Touchstone Gallery, New York, New York • Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island • Gallery Hirondelle Inc., New York, New York • Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida • Imago Gallery, Warren, Rhode Island • Big Town Gallery, Rochester, Vermont Gallery at Four, Tiverton, Rhode Island • Cade Tompkins, Providence, Rhode Island. He is represented in many private and public collections. For several years John Udvardy served as RISD’s Liaison Officer to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as teaching there as a visiting Critic. For a three year term he served as juror on the National Screening Committee for the Fulbright Awards at the Institute of International Education in New York. He received the Silver Medal Alumni Award for Faculty Member of the Year from the Rhode Island School of Design and recently he was awarded RISD’s Gold Sophia Medallion in recognition of his 34 years of outstanding teaching and service. He is presently a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Rhode Island School of Design. He has four children and lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, works and maintains studios in Warren, Rhode Island.
Original NetWorks Catalogue Bio:
John Udvardy retired from a thirty-four year career teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design where he chaired the Foundation Studies program and taught three-dimensional design. A sculptor who seeks to make connections between natural and manmade forms, Udvardy collects and categorizes his objects in his studio in a way that indicates what an organized teacher he must have been. He was born in Ohio of Hungarian ancestry and received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA from the Yale School of Art. On scholarship, he traveled through Europe and North Africa. Udvardy has exhibited his sculpture in solo and group exhibitions at many American museums and galleries. Among other honors, he received RISD’s Gold Sophia Medallion in recognition of his teaching career.
Source: NetWorks 2011-2012 Catalogue
Painted wood 74 x 40 x 16 in.
Credits:
Video by: Richard Goulis
Studio Assistant: Jim Bosquet
Photography/additional video: Karen Philippi
Music: Video Blocks.com
Executive Producer: Joseph A. Chazan, M.D.
Additional resources:
Artist’s website: johnudvardy.com
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
