Lydia Maria Pfeffer

Lydia Maria Pfeffer is a Painter and MFA graduate of the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC). She currently works and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Born and raised in a small village in Austria, Pfeffer grew up with art and music as leisurely, everyday activities, more in the form of tradition than academic training. She left home at the age of nineteen and traveled the world, settling first in London and later in New York, where she lived for 11 years and where she also began to study Fine Arts.

Pfeffer came to painting via music and performance, and these influences can be seen in her theatrical approach to painting. She takes her cue not only from personal experience with pagan (now Christianized) traditions, such as the Krampus, Fasching (Mardi
Gras), fairy- and folk tales and literature, but also myths and stories from around the world to create personal epics and a cosmos where her shape shifters and hybrid creatures live.
Her life as a bartender has prompted an intense relationship with the world of human behavior and the complexities of celebration. Her paintings are places that are morally ambiguous and without judgment they tell stories of masking, un-masking an...

MFA - Painting, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 2016

BFA, The Fashion Institute of Technology,
2013

SOLO and SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Intro: Lydia M Pfeffer and Simphiwe Ndzube, Dalton Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA, 2016

Candy Tales of Blows and Kisses, Center on Halsted, Chicago, IL, 2016

Folk- and Fairytales, NY, 250 Broome Street, La Barra, 2010


GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Let There Be Light, SAIC, McLean Building, Chicago, IL, 2015

Emerging Artists, Urban Edge Gallery, Waukegan, IL, 2015

YAW (Yonkers Art Weekend), i-Pad Building, Yonkers, NY, 2014

Be Yourself At Any Age, BRAC, Bronx, NY, 2014

Senses (Satellite exhibition of Torche Gallery), Chelsea, NY, 2014

Summer and Year Anniversary Exhibiton, Torche Gallery, Belmar, NJ, 2014

Beam Me Up Scotty, BFA Fine Arts Thesis Show, John E. Reeves, Great Hall, Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, 2013

Fall Exhibition, Torche Galerie, Belmar, NJ, 2013

The Grand Opening Exhibition, Torche Galerie, Belmar, NJ 2013

Six Summit Gallery at Hotel Chantelle, Hotel Chantelle, Manhattan, NY, 2013

The Thrift Show, The Paper Box, Brooklyn, NY, 2013

Cognito, La Moda, Manhattan, NY, 2013 (Curator and participating artist)

Select Art Fair, Art Basel Miami, FL, 2012

Photography Exhibition, Pomerantz Building, Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, 2012

Kunsthoeh...