JUDITH KRUGER
JUDITH KRUGER Judith Kruger, born 1955, is an American visual ar:st whose pain:ngs, prints and mixed media works address Human-Environment connec:vity and their shared vulnerabili:es. She is recognized interna:onally for her advocacy of natural pain:ng materials and historic, ecological processes. Judith's solo exhibi:ons include Drawing Ground, MLT Gallery-Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT, Mingled Terrain, Richardson Art Museum, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC (2018), An Alchemic View, MaXatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connec:cut (2015), Touching Rain, Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY (2015) Outside In, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona (2014) and New Pain:ngs at Morrison Gallery, Kent, Connec:cut (2013). Group exhibi:ons include Agawami Museum Hall, Tokushima, Japan, Sato Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, John and Robyn Horn Gallery, Penland, NC, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Manifest Gallery, Cincinna:, OH, Gallery G, Hiroshima, Japan, Pallazo Dell'Annunziata, Matera, Italy, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL and The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA. Judith's work is held in private, public and corporate collec:ons: some of which include Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY, MaXatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, Savannah College of Art and Design, Hong Kong and Phipps Conservatory’s Center for Sustainable Landscapes, PiXsburgh, PA. In 2008, Judith ini:ated the course Nihonga: Then and Now at the School of the Art Ins:tute of Chicago and was awarded a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to teach her course Gedng the Dirt on Paint in the Chicago Public School System. Her pain:ng workshops and studio residencies, based on these courses, are currently garnering an interna:onal following. In 2011, Judith was awarded a Target Professional Development grant. She is a recipient of a Mass MoCA Assets for Ar:sts matching grant (2016) and most recently, a Connec:cut Office of the Arts Fellowship grant (2019). Addi:onally, between 1977 and 2007, Judith collaborated with ar:sans in over a dozen countries on applied art and design manufacturing projects. During this :me, she travelled extensively throughout Japan, India and Thailand researching the historic, scien:fic and ar:s:c applica:ons of inorganic and organic pigments. She has served as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Syracuse University Chicago Arts Council Board and Chicago’s Ravenswood ArtWalk Board. Her fundraising efforts, which mobilized the crea:vity of hundreds of ar:sts and designers in the Chicago area, resulted in the dona:on of significant funds to UCLA AIDS Ins:tute to further AIDs research. Judith currently resides in Northwest, CT. Her studio is located in an old hosiery mill, 125 miles north of New York City, at the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains.
JUDITH KRUGER
Through the employ of natural pigments or Earth, as art material, my work addresses humanenvironment connec;vity including our shared strengths and vulnerabili;es. My Drawing Ground pain;ngs represent a recent explora;on in building surfaces with Connec;cut quartz collected from the mines situated around my studio. I am physically “drawing ground” from my environment and, in some cases, the founda;onal grounds of the work build in such a way to reveal areas that appear to look “drawn” when covered with another layer of a different pigment. Through the coming together of locally and globally procured pigments on one single, harmonious surface and the juxtaposing of inten;onally diverse levels, I am orchestra;ng the idea of universal compa;bility best conveyed in 1940 by Woody Guthrie, “this land was made for you and me”. There is no beOer way for a contemporary painter to comment on the urgency of planet care than with pigments from the planet itself.
-Judith Kruger
Drawing Ground 1 minerals, cochineal, gold, silver, shell gesso on linen 40 X 40 inches 2019 $10,000
Drawing Ground 2 minerals, indigo, silver, shell gesso, kozo on linen 40 X 40 inches 2019 $10,000
Drawing Ground 5 minerals, silver, shell gesso on linen 40 X 40 inches 2019 $10,000
Drawing Ground 6 minerals, indigo, shell gesso on linen 40 X 40 inches 2019 $10,000
Drawing Ground 7 minerals, red pigment, shell gesso, silver on linen 40 X 40 inches 2019 $10,000
Silver Lining Medita;ons Mineral pigments, sumi, silver on canvas and linen 58 X 63 inches 2014 $18,500
Silver Lining Medita;ons Mineral pigments, sumi, silver on canvas and linen 58 X 63 inches 2014 $18,500
Ebb and Flow 4 mineral pigments, silver leaf, oil pencil, Tengujo paper on Kumohada paper on canvas 24 X 24 inches 2013 $3,200
Malachite Mantra 1 mineral pigments, graphite, silver leaf, sumi on tar paper and Kumohada paper 58 X 63 inches 2014 $18,500