Marcia Hafif’s (b. 1929, Pomona, CA; d. 2018, Laguna Beach, CA) fifty-plus year long career spans so-called “Pop-Minimal” painting, experimental photography and filmmaking, and conceptually-driven monochromes and works on paper; central to her oeuvre is Hafif’s interest in pursuing a highly methodical approach which emphasizes the natural idiosyncrasies integral to the human touch. In 1978, Hafif penned an essay for Artforum titled “Beginning Again,” in which she outlined the struggle of the contemporary painter in an era when the act of painting had been (so many times already) deemed dead. In this piece, she cites Jacques Derrida’s phrase “under erasure” to describe the role of the painter - who many felt were left with little to divine in this already deeply mined practice - and points out the manner in which so many of her predecessors and contemporaries had found tension in this impossible state. It was at this time that Hafif committed to the monochrome approach for which she became most well known, and which she continued to explore and expand upon through the end of her life.

Marcia Hafif earned a B.A. from Pomona College (Claremont, CA) in 1951 and an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA) in 1971. Hafif’s works have been exhibited extensively internationally; recent major exhibitions include An Extended Gray Scale at 5142 West Jefferson Boulevard (Los Angeles, CA), Marcia Hafif, The Inventory: Painting at Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, CA), Marcia Hafif: The Italian Paintings 1961–69 at Fergus McCaffrey (New York, NY) and Marcia Hafif at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and Kunsthaus Baselland (St. Gallen and Muttenz, CH). Hafif’s works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Buffalo, NY), Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Kunsthaus Aarau (Aarau, CH), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (St. Gallen, CH), Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, CA), Mamco-Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Geneva, CH), and Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA), among others.