Eugenie Gershoy

Eugenie “Johnny” Gershoy came to the United States from Russia when she was two years old. She grew up in New York and received her only formal art training through a scholarship at the Art Students League. During the 1920s, she moved to Woodstock, New York, and joined a lively colony of artists and writers. She carved sculptures from found materials, including applewood, fieldstone, and old gravestones, and also modeled portraits of other artists in the colony. Returning to New York City in the late 1930s, Gershoy completed several projects for the Works Progress Administration. These included a series of brightly colored circus figures for a children’s library, and a group of large cement animals for a playground.