Patty Hudak: Biography
Patty Hudak is a painter and installation artist whose work combines the Japanese technique of mokuhanga with a contemporary exploration of nature, the supernatural, and human imagination. Her prints and installations arise from more than a decade living in China and Japan, and from her present life in Vermont, where she explores the quiet relations between spirit and the natural world. While living in China, her work evolved to include theories of ink painting and process and contains influences by the mystical Irish poet, WB Yeats. In Japan, she studied traditional woodblock printing and carving, which she is using for both print and installation work.
Hudak addresses concepts of isolation in Nature, amidst the surrounding turmoil. She applies color and forms in organic patterns and marks history with the penetration of the color into the fibers of the surface. This action symbolizes Nature as a system of porous materials. The pressure of her hand is a real-time response to the current emotional climate; she transforms these emotions into tangible forms. Memories of walking in Nature are channeled into the structures of the line and pattern. Hudak’s hand-carved and collaged prints reflect themes of transformation, liminality, and unseen presences. Pamela Polston of Seven Days compares her work to totems, noting “their graphic impact is both primitive and modernist.”
Since 2015, Hudak has created large-scale installations for the public in non-profit spaces. These include the 2018-2019 Vermont Creation Grant project, "There, Through the Broken Branches, Go", exhibited in 2020 at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, VT. Other large-scale installation projects include "Sailing to Byzantium" at Dublin Castle in Ireland, and "Botanical Ornaments" at the TW Wood Gallery in Montpelier, VT.
Hudak earned a B.A. in Studio Art from Wellesley College (1984) and studied Biological Illustration at the University of New Haven (1980–81). She continued her education at the New York Studio School and The Alternative Arts School.
Major solo exhibitions include Turning and Turning (Southern Vermont Arts Center, 2025); Gyring, Spiring (Minėmå Gallery, Johnson, VT, 2023); Botanical Ornaments (T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, 2021); Ink and Indigo and There, Through the Broken Branches, Go (Southern Vermont Arts Center, 2020); Beyond the Three Perfections (Dublin Castle Coach House, curated by E.S. de Wolfe Pettit, 2017); and Shadow Sides (Nishimachi Artist Space, Tokyo, 2016). Earlier projects in Asia include Patty Hudak in China (Being 3 Gallery, Beijing, 2015), True Colors (Beijing American Center, 2013), and Garden Helices (5 OPT Gallery, Hong Kong, 2008).
Her curatorial project The World Between the Block and the Paper (2022, Southern Vermont Arts Center; 2023 Kentler International Drawing Space; Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University) was named by Seven Days among Vermont’s Top Ten Exhibitions of 2022. She has exhibited widely in Japan, Ireland, China and the United States, at venues including the International Mokuhanga Conference (Nara, 2021, Echizen 2024), Launch Pad Gallery (Yokohama, 2022), and Hamilton Gallery (Sligo, 2018–2020).
Hudak’s honors include Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant (2019, 2026); Second Prize for Printmaking, Hunterdon Art Museum (2025); Southern Vermont Arts Center Artist Award (2024); Vermont Arts Council Artist Development Grant (2023); Vermont Studio Center Fellowship (2022–24); Awagami Paper Award, International Mokuhanga Conference (2021); Vermont Artists to Watch (2020); the U.S. Embassy in China Arts Grant (2015) and Being 3 Gallery Geography Project Award (Beijing, 2015). She received Stecher Scholarships for study in France and Italy (1983).
Her residencies include the Mokuhanga Project Space (Walla Walla, 2025); Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (Echizen and Lake Kawaguchi-ko, Japan, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2024); and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Maine, 2023). In July 2018 and 2019, she traveled to Walking Birds’ Mountain in the Ballygawley Mountains of Sligo County, Ireland, to collaborate with 14 artists and writers on an installation responding to folklore, archaeology, and the natural environment.
Hudak is a member of the Mokuhanga Sisters collective and a member of Art Byte Critique, Tokyo. She has served as guest lecturer at Union College,NY (2025), Lafayette College, PA (2024), St. Lawrence University, NY (2022), the Irish Embassy, Beijing (2015), the US Embassy Beijing American Center (2013), Beijing Normal University (2012), and served as Artist in Residence at Harrow International School Beijing (2014-2015).