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JU DY C H IL D Inner Mappings
bruno david gallery
JUDY CHILD Inner Mappings
April 12 - May 11, 2019 Bruno David Gallery 7513 Forsyth Boulevard Saint Louis, 63105 Missouri, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Judy Child: Inner Mappings Editor: Bruno L. David Catalog Designer: Lauren R. Mann Design Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Bruno David Gallery and Judy Child Cover image: Notation, 2018 (detail) Acrylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm) Copyright Š 2019 Bruno David Gallery, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery, Inc.
CONTENTS
DRAWING FROM LIFE by Adrienne Outlaw AFTERWORD by Bruno L. David CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY
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DRAWING FROM LIFE by Adrienne Outlaw
Maps reveal relationships among places, people and ideas. They offer myriad interpretations, which the viewer must be open to for the richest experience. Judy Child’s newest body of work, Inner Mappings at Bruno David Gallery, awards viewers with paintings that explore the texture and temperature of life. Eighteen ostensibly white paintings hanging on the white walls of the gallery at first makes for a subtle perceptual shift. It is almost as if variously sized, shallow blocks of impasto are protruding from the gallery walls. Upon closer inspection, the paintings come to life as slender cracks in the thickly applied paint reveal patterned webs of color below the surface. Where one painting bursts forth with a network of sunshiny yellow, in another, red rears its powerful bite. A third looks as if blue and green water once lapped the shores of a white sandy beach. Like long finger lines in the sand, sinuous indentations in select canvases deepen the story. Pockets of marbleization too beautiful to hide hold court in choice corners. While these work can easily be viewed as topographical maps, rock veins, or sun-bleached, cracked earth, Child’s paintings invite viewers to delve beyond the surface. Consider her titles, including Ask Me A Question, Word Play and Where Are You. Study the color, depth, and line of each crack, their darkness and light, shallowness and depth, jaggedness and fluidity. Imagine the temperament of the artist as she created each layer and be rewarded with imagery. While this process-driven work is not narrative, Inner Mappings reveals Child’s interest in mining the emotional landscape. Viewed like a core sample of her subconscious, the paintings reveal the pleasure and the pain, the joy and the toil found along her life’s journey. Where some cracks lead to compelling connection points, others are consumed, collapsed, or severed. Where some crevices celebrate the joy in seeing a dandelion field, the fresh growth of spring, and perfect, cloudless skies, other veins carry the weight of blood, coal, and fire. Each moment and each layer acts as a testament to the shifting dynamics of time as viewers connect with what the artist has laid bare.
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To make Inner Mappings, Child first pours white paint onto a white canvas. She then picks up the canvas, which can be as large at 3’ x 3’, and tilts it to help guide and spread the paint. She waits for that layer to dry. If she uses color for the next coat, she often invites them to intermingle, the results of which are as varied in appearance as the setting sun. “Each layer informs the next until you get to the present,” she says. She waits again before pouring a final, thick layer of white paint. As the last coat dries, it cracks to reveal a rich pattern. “I can’t really control where the cracks will form -- I can control the dilution of the paint and direct where it flows, but some of it is going to be left up to chance,” she says. “You have to let go at some point.” Child considers the work as a kind of choreography that she learns from noting each step of her movement as she builds and cracks the paint. She carefully studies each layer as it dries so that she can repeat movements she finds interesting and avoid those that bring nothing new to the process. For her, looking at and interpreting how she can work with the materiality of the paint to get it to flow, crack and reveal itself is similar to the interaction between the conscious and unconscious elements of the mind. “What has happened in your life in the past affects where you are now so it was important for me to reveal all these layers,” she says. “The process of talking, feeling and responding … I felt the need to capture these internal conversations and to express the complexity of this intimate process.” It is often said that artists draw upon the rainbow for their work. That Judy Child chose white, with its connotation of possibility, to sandwich her layers of color between, belies her intention to accept, learn, and share through her work. “Inner Mappings is so personal to me,” she says. “It says what I want to say. I don’t have to hide a layer. I can show them all.” Like grass springing forth from freshly cracked snow, Inner Mappings unfurls itself to reveal an interior landscape just ripe for the harvest. Quotes excerpted from interviews with the artist in the studio, May and August 2019
Artist, writer and curator Adrienne Outlaw has exhibited in approximately 100 museums, galleries, art and public spaces across the United States and abroad. She has been awarded numerous grants, awards, and fellowships. A dozen exhibition catalogs and three books feature her work, which addresses issues of individual and communal health. This text is one in a series of the gallery’s exhibitions written by fellow gallery artists and friends.
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AFTERWORD by Bruno L. David 4
I am pleased to present Inner Mappings, Judy Child’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. In this new series, Judy Child continues to explore the materiality and texture of paint as it is poured and manipulated onto canvas to create layered and fractured surfaces. Themes of duality are featured in this work. Choreographic, performative application at the artist’s hand exists alongside results of natural process. Emerging color adds to the narrative, suggestive of immersive sources, barely contained. Judy Child lives and works in St. Louis and has shown her work locally, regionally and nationally. She received her B.S. from Colby Sawyer College and attended Boston University. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts individual artist grant. Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Adrienne Outlaw for her thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Lauren R. Mann, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Taylor Fulton, Katie Engelmeyer, Damaris Dunham, Peter Finley, Lauren R. Mann, Natalie Snyder, Matt McLoughlin, and Jin Xia.
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CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION
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Multiple Meanings
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2018 Arcylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches (76.20 x 76.20 cm)
Light Words
2018 Arcylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches (76.20 x 76.20 cm)
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Midnight
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 36 x 36 inches (91.44 x 91.44 cm)
Where Are You
2018 Arcylic on canvas 36 x 36 inches (91.44 x 91.44 cm)
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Haven
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
Time Writer
2017 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
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Memo
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2017 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
Ask Me A Question 2018 Arcylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches (76.20 x 76.20 cm)
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Magnetic
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
Notation
2018 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
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Fusion
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
Blue Conversation 2017 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
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I Am Here
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2018 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
Finale
2017 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
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Unseen
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2017 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
Proclamation
2017 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
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Word Play
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2017 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
One Last Thing
2017 Arcylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches (40.64 x 40.64 cm)
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Anticipation
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches (76.20 x 76.20 cm)
Anticipation (detail)
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Out of Line
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2019 Arcylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches (76.20 x 76.20 cm)
Out of Line (detail)
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Wordless
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2018 Arcylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches (60.96 x 60.96 cm)
Wordless (detail)
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Stop Motion
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2017 Arcylic on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.80 x 50.80 cm)
Stop Motion (detail)
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Judy Child: Inner Mappings (Installation view) 34
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JUDY CHILD Lives and works in Saint Louis, Missouri EDUCATION 1978-80 Program in Artisanry, Boston University, Boston, MA 1976 Auckland Society of Arts, Auckland, New Zealand 1971 B.S., Colby Sawyer College, New London, NH
ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2019 2017 2002 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1993 1992 1990 1989 1987
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Inner Mappings, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue) Revelations, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue) New Work, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO Spatial Patterns, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Paintings, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Paintings, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO Paintings: Pattern, Texture & Color, Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery, Colby Sawyer College, New London, NH Recent Work, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art. St. Louis, MO New Paintings, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Paintings, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Work, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Work, MJF Studio Arts Gallery, St. Louis, MO New Work, Mossa Center, St. Louis, MO Recent Work, Louis D. Beaumont Gallery, Maryville University, St. Louis, MO
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2019 2018 2017 2008 2007 2005 2004 2001 2000 1997 1996 1995 1994 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988
OVERVIEW_2019, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_2018, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_2017, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO Grand Center Artists, PSTL Window Gallery, St. Louis, MO Art for a Lifetime, Drive Agency, St. Louis, MO Collectors Choice, St. Louis Artist Guild, St. Louis, MO Size Matters, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO ART, St. Louis Repertory Theater, St. Louis, MO Summer Exhibition, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO St. Louis: The City Series, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA Group Exhibition, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO Absolutely Abstract, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO New Pier Show, Art Chicago 1994, Chicago, IL 10th Anniversary Group Show, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO Abstraction, Morton J. May Gallery, Maryville University, St. Louis, MO Art St. Louis VIII, The Exhibition, St. Louis, MO The Last Picture Show, Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, MO Small Worlds, Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, MO Artists Choose Artists, St. Louis Center, St. Louis, MO Art St. Louis V, St. Louis Artists Coalition, St. Louis, MO 1st Annual St. Louis Artists Juried Exhibition: Spotlight on Drawing”,” St. Louis Gallery of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO Art St. Louis IV,” St. Louis Artists Coalition, St. Louis, MO
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Outlaw, Adrienne Marks, Kerry Schwartz, Tim Marks, Kerry Cooper, Ivy Schroeder, Ivy Smith, Brian Daniel, Jeff Melrod, George Bellos, Alexandra Riley Parr, Debra Smith, Brian Ferring S., Carol Ferring S., Carol Duffy, Robert W. Harris, Paul A. Sauer, Georgia Schmitendorf, Karen
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Bruno David Gallery Publications, “Drawing from Life”, Essay, September 2019 “Judy Child,” HEC-TV, Interview, April 15, 2019 Bruno David Gallery Publications, Interview, December 2017 “Bruno David’s New Exhibition Explores Politics, Movement, and Mindscapes,” HEC-TV, May 2017 “Judy Child: New Work,” The Riverfront Times, December 2002. “Judy Child: Spatial Patterns,” The Riverfront Times, May 1999. “Judy Child: Spatial Patterns,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 1999. “Abstract Artist Makes Her Evolutionary Move,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 1998. “Openings,” Art and Antiques, November 1995. “Symbol Pleasures,” The Riverfront Times, March 1995. “Similarities Belie Artists’ Diverse Paths,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 1995. “A Visit to the Studio of Judy Child,” Close-Up: Art St. Louis Magazine, Summer, 1994. “In Review,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 1993. “Honor Award Winners are a Diverse Lot,” Honor Awards, St. Louis Post Dispatch, February 1993. “Work of Three Artists are a Study in Contrast,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, February 1992. “Ordinary Subjects Mask Wealth of Abstraction,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 1991. “The Creative Touch,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1990. “Child’s Works Display Visual Vocabulary,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, December 1990.
AWARDS & HONORS 1998 1996
Juror/Curator, Honors 1998, Art. St. Louis, St. Louis, MO Fellowship Recipient in painting, National Endowment for the Arts and Mid-America Arts Alliance
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO Landmark Bancshares, IL Peat, Marwick, Main and Co., Indianapolis, IN Centerco Properties, St. Louis, MO Davis & Davis, St. Louis, MO Ingersol Publications, St. Louis, MO Midland Group, St. Louis MO Emerson Electric, St. Louis, MO Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO BlueCross BlueShield, St. Louis, MO
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ARTISTS Laura Beard Heather Bennett Lisa K. Blatt Michael Byron Bunny Burson Judy Child Carmon Colangelo Terry James Conrad Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Damon Freed Douglass Freed Ellen Jantzen
Michael Jantzen Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Xizi Liu Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey Justin Henry Miller James Austin Murray Yvonne Osei Patricia Olynyk Gary Passanise Judy Pfaff
Charles P. Reay Daniel Raedeke Tom Reed Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Mark Travers Monika Wulfers
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