JUDY ONOFRIO
SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
sherry leedy contem
J U DY O N O F R I O September 4 - October 24, 2026
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art 2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 Gallery Director: Sherry Leedy Catalog Design: Celina Curry Find us at: sherryleedy.com IG: @sherryleedycontemporaryart FB: @sherryleedycontemporaryart Cover: “Hilda Holds the Cards” This page: “Garden Delight”
porary art presents:
Sep tember 4 - October 24, 2026 Judy Onofrio has always been in love with the stuff of the world. Over her sixty-year career, she has worked with clay, and later built, painted, and often set on fire enormous sculptural constructions. For the past thirty years, she has told optimistic stories through elaborately embellished figurative sculptures. Themes of enchantment and magic run throughout Onofrio’s oeuvre, populated by a cast of characters including mermaids, octopuses, and big catches. Big Fun embodies Onofrio’s joyful experience of making work in the studio. The studio is where she creates her world – one full of memories of growing up at the beach, magic, the circus, and George Washington. This exhibition brings together works that touch on these themes close to her heart. In Big Fun, material astonishes and transforms. Scores of cow teeth form coral reefs and jawbones join forces, swirling into topknots of flowers. Carved figures, birds, fish, and canoes are painted in layers of luminous color and often covered with meticulously applied antique beads. Onofrio’s sculptures are alive with movement and surprise, held still by the gaze of her cast of characters. Each work captures the essence of discovery and holds it like a breath between then and now. The monumental sculpture Sanctuary is the center of the exhibition, a tour de force standing over eight feet tall. Its organic central core is formed by sturdy wooden tree-like vines that anchor and shelter the forms swirling around it. Figures carved from basswood are suspended in three-dimensional stop-action, each held like a glimpse of a dream. A woman in a canoe leans forward holding a stringer of fish, navigating through a supporting cast of characters and vegetation. A tangle of wide-eyed, heavy-lidded fish swim below, while birds fly above and flowers bloom everywhere. Judy Onofrio’s originality and generosity are rare and treasured by those who know her. Her expertise, grit, attention to detail, and singular vision make her a force of nature. Always ready for a new adventure, she courageously sets off from shore to explore new worlds even when others may not see a trace of land ahead. Big Fun!
Make a Wish Mixed media 2026 48” x 28” x 13”
Full Lunch Mixed media 2022 16” x 25.5” x 7”
Hilda Holds the Cards Mixed media 2026 40” x 38” x 16”
Details: Hilda Holds the Cards
14.
Installation view: Northwest gallery
15.
Sanctuary Mixed media 2023 94” x 56” x 46”
Gladys from Atlantis Mixed media 2024 41” x 36” x 15”
Meow Mixed media 2005 46” x 39” x 22”
22.
Installation view: Northwest gallery
23.
Garden Delight Mixed media 2026 41” x 21” x 19”
Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree? Mixed media 2025 37” x 21” x 17”
28.
Installation view: Northeast gallery
29.
Beach Memories Mixed media 2022 48” x 21” x 13”
Deep Sea Adventure Mixed media 2006 28” x 28” x 16”
Octopus Garden Mixed media 33” x 44” x 11”
Estelle and Her Amazing Birds Mixed media 2005 52” x 37” x 24”
Feast Mixed media 2020 33” x 50” x 11”
Big Fish Mixed media 2022 27” x 27” x 12”
Keep Up Mixed media 2022 16” x 25.5” x 7”