JUDY LEDGERWOOD

Color has always been the primary vehicle for content in Ledgerwood’s work. From the early wall-sized pastel-hued monochromes that feminized the palette of heroic color field painting, to the later works that have been made in response to the light and scale of the locations in which they are placed. These works allow her to contribute to the forceful tradition of abstraction, and open up a conversation to a new and audacious palette informed by a history of fashion and interior design.

Often her work appears to be strongly graphic, but a number of painterly devices work to complicate the viewing experience upon second look. Subtle shifts in hue from warm to cool within the narrow range of a single tone, or variations in surface from matte to shiny, might reflect or absorb changing light and alter the initial perception. Figure-ground relationships shift depending on viewer position and ambient light, encouraging and rewarding a physical engagement with the space and the painting. A conscious act of looking deepens an awareness of the subjectivity of vision.

Ledgerwood’s practice addresses the relationship between the pictorial and physical space containing the work in a way akin to color field painting, to which her work is often linked. The paintings and ceramics do not decorate surfaces or otherwise supplement architecture; but function to orient the viewer to the richness of this specific place. Her work creates an experience that is grounding, and yet elusive.

Judy Ledgerwood lives and works in Chicago. Her work has been exhibited both in the United States and internationally. She is the recipient of The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award, an Artadia Award, a Tiffany Award in the Visual Arts, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and an Illinois Art Council Award. Her work is included in prominent public collections: the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.