Judy Takács (born 1962, New York) is a contemporary figurative painter, known for her realistic paintings from her ongoing, traveling portrait series, ''Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes''. “Takács is a

figurative artist Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...

who tells stories about people who have something uplifting to share.” She is an elected member of, and past Social Media Chair for Allied Artists of America. She is past Social Media Chair and Literature Committee writer for the Cecilia Beaux Forum of the Portrait Society of America. In 2018, Takács was elected to membership in the Salmagundi Art Club and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in New York City. She holds Signature Status with Portrait Society of America,

American Women Artists American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and Akron Society of Artists. She lives and works in

Solon, Ohio Solon ( ) is a city in southeastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 24,262 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A suburb of Cleveland, it is part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. History In 1820, the first ...

Biography

Takács received her BFA in Illustration and Portrait Painting from the

Cleveland Institute of Art The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio. History The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at f ...

in 1986. Takács has staged serial projects painting senior citizens and elderly nuns from life. These projects have yielded over fifty paintings, three solo shows, a feature in Anthropology & Aging Quarterly and placements in juried and invitational shows. In 2014 she published a book of these collected portraits of the elderly called, ''The Age of Adventure''. Takács' work has been recognized by the Portrait Society of America, the

Art Renewal Center The Art Renewal Center (ARC) is a non-profit, educational organization, which hosts an online museum dedicated to realist art. The ARC was founded by New Jersey businessman, author, and art collector Fred Ross. Particular emphasis is given to ...

, the

National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'', to "stimulate, foster, and promote publi ...

, Cincinnati Arts Club, Allied Artists of America, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Club, and the

Salmagundi Club The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership rost ...

, NYC. She has participated in Women Painting Women Exhibitions along with Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani, Diane Fiesel and Sadie Valeri, and multiple Poets/Artists publications and live exhibitions. Takács' work is archived at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve. Her work has been exhibited at the

Butler Institute of American Art The Butler Institute of American Art (BIAA), located on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, was the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. Established by local industrialist and philanthropist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., the ...

, the

Brookgreen Gardens Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, located just south of Murrells Inlet, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The property includes several themed gardens featuring American figurative sculptures, the Lowcountry Zo ...

Zanesville Museum of Art Zanesville is a city in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum rivers, the city is approximately east of Columbus and had a population of 24,765 as of the 2020 cen ...

Evansville Museum The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is a general-interest museum located on the Ohio riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1904, it is one of Southern Indiana's most established and significant cultura ...

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (abbreviated to moCa) is a contemporary art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in Metropolitan Cleveland. The organisation was founded by Marjorie ...

Haggin Museum The Haggin Museum is an art museum and local history museum in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, located in the city's Victory Park. The museum opened in 1931. Its art collection includes works by European painters Jean Béraud, Rosa Bon ...

, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art and ARTneo. Takács' work is included in the permanent collections of

Susquehanna University Susquehanna University is a private liberal arts college in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, United States. Its name is derived from the original Susquehannock settlers of the region. Founded in 1858 as a missionary institute, it became a four-year li ...

and ARTneo. In 2009 she began both painting and blogging her project; ''Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes''. For this series, she asked her female friends and family to pose topless, holding balls to symbolize their personal challenges. In 2013, Takács authored and published, ''Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes''. and received an

Ohio Arts Council The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) is an agency serving the U.S. state of Ohio. Its offices are in the Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus, Ohio. History Established in 1965, its mission is to "foster and encourage the development of the arts and as ...

Grant for Individual Artistic Excellence in 2013, 2019 for the series which became a traveling exhibition that culminated in her first solo museum show at the Zanesville Museum of Art in February 2020. In 2014, Takács curated ''Majority Rising'' for the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve during

Women's History Month Women's History Month is an annual observance to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. Celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with Internationa ...

. Choosing work from

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

figurative artists, Shirley Aley Campbell, Kathleen McKenna, Marilyn Szalay, Lee Heinen and Marsha Sweet. Takács painted and exhibited a portrait of each artist as well. In 2015 Takács had her two-artist inaugural exhibition with Marilyn Szalay at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve. Takács and Szalay were referred to as “two titans of figurative art” in Cleveland Scene Magazine. The exhibition showed 12 works from each artist and was entitled, "Szalay…Takács…Secrets." The theme for the works included, dealt with the concept of hidden meanings in art, some of which go to the grave with the artist. In 2016 Takács was one of the nine artists, including Stephanie Deshpande, Lauren Tilden, Mario Robinson, and Terry Strickland, who participated in the Emanuel Nine Portrait Project at Principle Gallery, honoring the victims of the

Charleston church shooting An Anti-Black racism, anti-black mass shooting and hate crime occurred on June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed, and one was injured, during a Bible study (Christianity), Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist ...

. She painted a portrait of Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons Sr. In 2018, Takács begain painting works for her Goddess Project series, re-imagining the mythology of all the religions through a contemporary feminist lens. The Goddess Project has exhibited two solo shows, ''The Goddess Project: Innocents'', in conjunction with the Ohio Innocence Project at Chagrin Arts in March 2022 and ''The Goddess Project: Warriors'' at the Ashtabula Arts Center in July 2023. Works from the project were awarded an

Grant for Individual Artistic Excellence in 2023. Takacs published, ''The Goddess Project: Paintings and Stories by Judy Takács'' in 2022. A few years before

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...

was overturned by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, on June 24, 2022, Takács was creating and showing Pro-Choice paintings. She won Best in Show awards for MASALA (Make Abortion Safe and Legal Again) at the Akron Society of Artists Juried Exhibition in 2022 and one for BANS Off at the Summit Artspace Kaleidoscope Exhibition in October 2023. Takács' activism included writing Opinion Editorial articles and Letters to the Editor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Leading up to

Election Day Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections ...

in Ohio, when the Ohio Reproductive Rights Amendment was on the ballot, Chagrin Arts hosted a show of Takács' Pro Choice works, Mothers, Women, Children, Choices. Ultimately her efforts were successful and the Ohio Reproductive Rights Amendment passed, securing abortion rights in the

Ohio Constitution The Constitution of the State of Ohio is the basic governing document of the State of Ohio, which in 1803 became the 17th state to join the United States of America. Ohio has had three constitutions since statehood was granted. Ohio was created ...

. In March, 2024 Takács wrote a book chronicling this statewide effort against the backdrop of her art and activism, My Weapon of Choice: Judy Takács Paints Reproductive Rights. Takács' father is

Queueing theory Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because th ...

pioneer,

Lajos Takács Lajos Takács (August 21, 1924 (Maglód) – December 4, 2015) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian mathematician, known for his contributions to probability theory and in particular, queueing theory. He wrote over two hundred scientific papers and ...

and her mother, is the author

Dalma Takács Dalma Takács (24 March 1933 – 24 June 2016) was a Hungarian-American novelist of fictional and historical works. Author ''Clear the Line'' Takács was editor of the memoir, ''Clear the Line'', the historical account of Hungary's struggle to l ...

Art

Takács' painting, ''Cancer Honeymoon'' depicts Takács’ mother,

during the early stages of

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

. She continues this theme with her paintings, ''Guardian Angel of the Good Death'' and ''Serenity Prayer'' and the Ephemera Collector Series. #Me(dusa)too, oil on canvas, 2018. From The Goddess Project; before she was a hideous, snake-headed gorgon, Medusa was a beautiful young rape victim. Goddess Athena turned her into the monster whose glance turns men to stone for the crime of being raped by God Poseidon in Athena's temple. Arachne, Predator and Prey, oil on canvas, 2018. From The Goddess Project, another victim of Athena's wrath, Arachne was a superior weaver who bested the Goddess in a weaving competition; for which she was turned into a spider. The Pledge, oil on canvas with collage, 2023. A Pro Choice painting from a larger series created by Judy Takács in response to the

overturning

, June 24, 2022.

Bibliography

*My Weapon of Choice: Judy Takács paints Reproductive Rights, April 2024, blurb.com *The Goddess Project: Paintings and Stories by Judy Takács, March 2022, blurb.com *Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, March 2021, Issue 32, Judy Takács and Shana Levenson: Artist to Artist, Armidale, Australia *The Artists Magazine, September 2018, A Happy Medium: Judy Takács, Grand Prize Winner in the All Media Art Competition, F-W Media, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio *Poets/Artists Sight Unseen, February 2016, Didi Menendez, with curator Alia El-Bermani, Poets/Artists, Chicago, Illinois *The Archives Speak, November 2014, Rota Sackerlotzky and Roger Welchans, The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, Cleveland, Ohio *Age of Adventure: Judy Takács paints the retired and inspired, August 2014, Judy Takács, blurb.com, Cleveland, Ohio * Women Painting Women, September 2014. Matter Deep Publishing, Principle Gallery, South Carolina *

International Salon Catalog 2013/14. August 2014 *Present Tense: Contemporary Art in Ohio, Artists of Rubber CIty. November 2014. *Manifest Gallery International Painting Annual 3. January 2014. Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio *Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes, August 2013, blurb.com *Solon Senior Project: Judy Takács paints fascinating wisdom, November 2012, blurb.com

References

External links

Artist Portfolio and Website

Cleveland Scene Magazine Article by Joseph Clark

Sankofa Review Article by Gabriella Dellosso Gonzales

Television Interview on "Artists at Work"

Film of Gallery Show, Chicks with Balls: Judy Takács paints unsung female heroes at Cuyahoga Community College Gallery East
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takács, Judy 1962 births Living people American contemporary painters 21st-century American painters Artists from Cleveland 20th-century American painters American modern painters Cleveland Institute of Art alumni American portrait painters 20th-century American women painters 21st-century American women painters

Biography

Art

Bibliography

See also

References

External links