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| Home | Bio |
Kristi Pfister was born in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a degree in visual art, studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York, and attended Pratt Institute for her masters. She balances studio work with public projects. Her funders include: Percent for Art, New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit, and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. She is an art educator, having taught in numerous educational venues from early childhood through college.
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| Statement | Growing up in Brooklyn, I was influenced by the towering sepia murals of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Savings Bank and the vast mosaics that I memorized as I rode the subway back and forth each day to high school. My work is about the geography and history of a place and the figures working within these landscapes or settings. These figures may be digging, surveying, or assessing a terrain or unearthed excavation. I am very interested in the thin layer of the earth’s surface; what is above and below it, and the discovery or study of these places before or after various human actions or natural disruptions. I make multiple paintings or drawings on small tiles recording these measured moments. I work with conte crayon because of the dust like atmospheric qualities I can get with it. My studio work is reflected in the themes I choose for large-scale site-specific public work. Waterzone, a 150’ painting on Coney Island’s boardwalk, is a cross section of the water and beach. Aquehonga is a marble mosaic of the underside of a turtle (the symbol of the Lenape people). It was designed for the lobby of a newly constructed school in southern Staten Island, on the site of an archaelogical dig. Excavated spear tips, mortars, and many other artifacts identified this place as an ancient food processing camp for the hunters and gatherers that are the descendants of the Lenape Indians. Site-specific work is social by nature. Opportunities to collaborate with specific communities led me to teaching first through muralmaking, then as a teaching artist in NYC public schools and currently as an art educator from the elementary level through college.
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| Education |
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| 2007 | M.S., Art and Design Education, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY | ||
| 1978 | B.A., Barnard College, Columbia University, NY, NY | ||
| 1978-1980 | Art Students League, NY, NY, Student with Isaac Soyer, Robert Phillipp, Robert Beverly Hale. Awarded Merit Scholarship for Painting 1979 | ||
| Public Work |
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| 2005 | When Women Pursue Justice - wall mural, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY 1 of 13 lead artists-Dorothy Day and Shirley Chisholm portraits, Artmakers, Inc., 30’ x 75’ |
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| 2003 | Seascape, interior murals and paintings for permanent exhibit, Staten Island Children’s Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY 12’ x 30’ | ||
| 2000 | Aquehonga - Percent for Art Sites for Students, Interior Marble Mosaic Mural, PS 56, Staten Island, NY 6’ x 14” | ||
| 1993-2000 | Zoo Mosaics – Staten Island Zoo, 200 Sq. Ft., eight permanent ceramic mosaic interior panels. Funded by New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts regrants, Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, Staten Island Zoological Society |
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| 1995 | Time – West Brighton, exterior wall mural, Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, 12’ x 30’ | ||
| 1992 | Taylor Made – exterior wall mural, West Brighton LDC, West Brighton, Staten Island, NY, 18’ x 50’ | ||
| 1989 | Beloved - exterior wall mural, Coney Island Hospital, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Brooklyn, 6’ x 60’ |
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| 1988 | Waterzone – exterior wall mural, New York Aquarium on the Coney Island boardwalk, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, 10’ x 150’ | ||
| 1988 | Band Aid Frieze – exterior wall mural, Coney Island Community Health Center, Brooklyn, NY, 6’ x 125’ | ||
| 1986 and 1992 | New York Lumber Company, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY, two exterior facades, 1986 & 1992 | ||
| 1988 | Coney Island USA Sideshows by the Seashore – Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY, exterior mosaic medallion 3’x 3’, 1988 | ||
| 1987 | Surf – New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Arts for Transit Creative Stations, Mural and Mosaics, Stillwell Avenue Subway Station, Brooklyn, NY, 8’ x 64’ | ||
| 1986 | Diggers – exterior wall mural, New York City Department of General Services, Operation Greenthumb Artists in the Gardens, Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY, 30’ x 55’ | ||
| Facilitated Public Works and Grants | 2005 |
Water Words, Dolphin Sightings Project with ESL students at PS 16, funded through Richmond County Savings Bank, exhibited on grounds of Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY |
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| 2002 | South Street Seaport Museum, interior mosaic medallions, permanent installation, NY City Department of Education summer program for intermediate school students | ||
| 2002 | Respect, Parents as Arts Partners Grant at The Hungerford School for the Developmentally Disadvantaged, interior cermainc mosaic high school students and parents, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2002 | The Four Elements, September 11th School Arts Rescue Fund, interior cermaic mosaics with 4th graders, PS 16, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2000 | New Millenium, Percent for Art at PS 50 with 5th Grade, interior mosaic, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 1997 | Freedom from Slavery – mixed media scroll, 10’ x 5”, Council on the Arts and humanities for Staten Island, New York State Council on the Arts regrant, collaboration with Trinity Lutheran School, grades 1-8, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 1994 | Ancient Stereotypes – Mosaic medallions with IS 27, Prospect Park Zoo, Brooklyn, NY | ||
| Selected Exhibitions | 2009 | Contact:1609, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY | |
| 2009 | Images from the African Diaspora, MOCADA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY | ||
| 2009 | HUGEunHUGE, Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2009 | Art by the Ferry, 70 Bay Street, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2009 | Faculty Work, Wagner College Gallery, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2008 | Art by the Ferry, 120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2008 | Landing Salt, Pearl Street Gallery, Chelsea, MA | ||
| 2007 | Mosaic as Craft, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2006 | Salt Mountain, Noble Maritime Collection, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2006 | When Women Pursue Social Justice, St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, NY |
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| 2006 | When Women Pursue Social Justice, Bread and Roses Gallery, NY, NY | ||
| 2005 | Junefest, COAHSI Visual Art Award, Solo Exhibition, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2005 | Biennial, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2005 | Juried Show, Vlepo Gallery, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2004 | The Mini Works Exhibition, Tattfoo Gallery, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2003 | Invitational, Soho 20 Chelsea, NY, NY | ||
| 2003 | The Birdbath Project, Faber Park and Pool, Staten Island, NY | ||
| 2002 | Descenders, Noble Maritime Collection, Staten Island, Solo Exhibition | ||
| 2001 | Studio in a School Artists at Work, New Century Gallery, NY, NY |
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| Media, Press and Publications | On the Wall four Decades of Community Art in New York City, Janet Braun-Reinitz and Jane Weissman, University Press of Mississippi, 2009, appear on book cover, title page, pgs. 90, 100-1,197
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| Awards | Women in History Achievement in the Arts, New York State Legislative Award 2002 Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, Visual Art Award, 2005
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| Images & content © Kristi Pfister 2010. | All rights reserved. |