About

Judy Hugentobler’s initial training in sculpture introduced her to portraiture, working with clay and plaster.  During the early eighties while living in Chicago, Illinois she was exposed to the revitalization of Chicago’s Art scene under Mayor Jane Byrne, the Chicago Imagists and Public Art installations at Navy Pier.

Judy began undergraduate studies in Biology and Studio Art in Granville, Ohio.  While at Denison University, she was introduced to metal sculpture fabrication, including techniques to cast aluminum and fiberglass resin. Casting processes later became the focus of her ongoing studio practice.

Exploring a combination of soft and hard materials, she continued graduate studies in sculpture, in Albany, where she worked with wax, aluminum, plaster and bronze casting.  During a Summer workshop, she was introduced to ceramic slip casting, as well as saggar and raku firing at Skidmore College.

After receiving a MFA degree in Sculpture, from the SUNY at Albany, she pursued work as a teaching artist in Troy, at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, as an adjunct at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Returning to NYC in 2006, she worked as an Adjunct Professor of 2D/3D Design, in the Visual Department of LIM College.

From 2010-2012 Hugentobler also conducted ceramic programs at the Sirovich Senior Center on East 12th Street, sponsored by a Space for Art Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.  Senior programs in 2013 were supported by the Educational Alliance, on the Lower East side.  She also worked as a teaching artist-in-residence for Public Schools in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.

Ceramic residencies she attended include Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York, and at Salem Art Works, in Salem, New York. Judy attended a ceramic residency 2019 at the Byrdcliffe AIR Program in Woodstock, New York.  In the following year her work was included in Utopian Living Artists-In-Residence 2019 at the Kleinert /James Center for the Arts (2020).  In 2021 she received a City Artist Corp Grant to offer public programs in sculpture at MakerSpace on Staten Island.

Her work was included in The Art of the Educator exhibition in the Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building at MoMA, organized by the Department of Learning and Engagement. Recently she received a 2025 Su-Casa Grant from the Staten Island Arts Council, and currently conducts a program for seniors at the Mount Loretto Friendship Club.

cultural-funding/city artist corp

Contact info.  hugentobler.j[a]gmail.com