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John Udvardy gets great pleasure and inspiration by using and reshaping objects and materials that in many cases predate his existence on this planet. The age-worn patinas and unknown histories and origins of these objects and forms hopefully create a dialogue with each other to bring a poetic mystery that helps to energize Udvardy’s work and vision.

During the construction process certain arrangements of shapes can inspire Udvardy to start thinking about a new piece of sculpture or another direction to move into. He finds that work inspires new pieces and new directions. Inspiration is born from working, and that helps to keep him going back to the studio each day — to be reborn again.

It’s very satisfying for Udvardy to work with his hands and use hand held tools in the shaping and forming of his sculptures. The craftsmanship of how well the materials and things he uses in his work are put together, and how they are joined together, is of paramount importance to him.

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John Udvardy was born in Elyria, Ohio of Hungarian Ancestry. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He earned his MFA from Yale University. The Mary C. Page Scholarship allowed him to travel through Europe, Scandinavia, Spain and North Africa. He has worked at a variety of different jobs, including working in the steel mills of Lorain, Ohio with his father, as well as being a brakeman on the New Haven Railroad while he was a graduate student at Yale. During the late fifties while living in Greenwich Village, he worked in a snap factory in the Garment District of New York and in a spindle shop in Brooklyn. To maintain his studio and support himself while living in Boston, he worked as a sign painter there and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a specialist in an artillery battalion while serving in the Army.

John Udvardy has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Yale University, Brown University and he was Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. He is a full Professor and has taught Three Dimensional Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as being the Chairman of the Foundation Studies Program and Director of the Summer Transfer Program for many years.  John Udvardy has an extensive exhibition record, exhibiting widely throughout the United States in over 200 group shows and in 40 one person exhibits some of which include:

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• Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

• Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

• Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts

• Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York

• Jewett Art Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts

• Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

• Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island

• Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire

• Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida

• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

• Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, New York

• Syracuse Museum of Fine Art, Syracuse, New York

• Institute of ContemporaryArt, Boston, Massachusetts 

• San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California

• Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts 

• The Maryland Art Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

• Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts

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John Udvardy has also exhibited at, and been represented by the following galleries:

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• Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, Rhode Island

• Gallery at FOUR, Tiverton, Rhode Island

• Obelisk Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

• Michael Walls Gallery, San Francisco, California

• The Sara Roby Foundation, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

• Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island

• The Roland Gibson Art Foundation, Potsdam, New York

• Suzette Schochet Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island

• The Touchstone Gallery, New York, New York

• Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, Rhode Island

• Gallery Hirondelle Inc., New York, New York

• Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida

• Imago Gallery, Warren, Rhode Island

• Big Town Gallery, Rochester, Vermont

He is represented in many private and public collections.

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For several years John Udvardy served as RISD's Liaison Officer to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as teaching there as a visiting Critic.

For a three-year term he served as juror on the National Screening Committee for the Fulbright Awards at the Institute of International Education in New York.

He received the Silver Medal Alumni Award for Faculty Member of the Year from the Rhode Island School of Design and recently he was awarded RISD's Gold Sophia Medallion in recognition of his 34 years of outstanding teaching and service. He is presently a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Rhode Island School of Design.

He has four children and lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, works and maintains studios in Warren, Rhode Island.