Mary Judge: Studies in Segmented Form
June 24 to September 3, 2007
Exhibition Reception: Sunday, June 24, 2007; 3 to 5 pm
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to present Mary Judge: Studies in Segmented Form, which will open on June 24 and be on view through September 3, 2007. Judge’s provocative new installation will focus on the relationship between a large-scale cast concrete sculpture sited in the Museum’s inner courtyard and a twenty-nine-foot-long drawing that will fill the wall of the adjacent corridor gallery.
The exhibition will also feature several smaller pieces of sculpture, drawings, and unique prints that enjoy a close formal relationship to one another and the environment. The most prominent shape in Mary Judge’s new work is the segmented quatrefoil, a four-lobed, deceptively-simple, but complex form that appears repeatedly in nature. Judge explores the underlying geometry of the quatrefoil to generate an almost unlimited variety of formal patterns. Each work offers a new array of circles, loops, twists, and waves that are realized in either two or three dimensions. “Despite the underlying consistency of the quatrefoil shape and the use of stencils to replicate forms in this presentation, each work is unique,” says Aldrich exhibitions director Richard Klein.additional images | click to enlarge
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Mary Judge, Exotic Hex Series no. 104-07, 2007
Powdered pigment on 100% rag paper
Courtesy of the artist and Metaphor Contemporary Art
Mary Judge, Rose Window Series no. 28, 2007
Unique relief print on handmade paper
Courtesy the artist and Metaphor Contemporary Art
Mary Judge, Segmented Form no.102, 2007
Cast concrete
Diameter 31 1/2, Height 11 inches
Courtesy of Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn NY
The large wall drawing is made with a perforated stencil attached directly to the wall and pounced with a sack of powdered pigment, so that “dust” passes through the holes and leaves marks or dots that create an image. “The version of this technique which I have developed derives from the ‘spolvero’ (meaning dust in Italian) and was used by Renaissance artists to transfer drawings to the wall for fresco painting,” Judge notes. “I designed this wall drawing keeping aspects of the outdoor sculpture in mind and embrace all of the chance effects that happen along the way while pouncing.”
The modular sculptures are derived from the drawings. “What is interesting about working in cement is that this homely industrial material is capable of great malleability and beauty, registering even the finest details,” Judge comments. “I embrace all the little mistakes and details and the range of surface qualities it is capable of capturing. I don’t want the pieces to be hard and cold: I want them to have a feeling of the ‘real,’ so the ‘mistakes’ are good. Each module and each work has its own individual character.”
New York artist Mary Judge is a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design and Tyler School of Art. She has exhibited at The Drawing Center, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; and many galleries in the United States and abroad. Her work is included in the collections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and The Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA.
This exhibition has been made possible in partnership with Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn NY.
The exhibition opening will take place at The Aldrich, 258 Main Street Ridgefield, on Sunday, June 24, 2007, from 3 to 5 pm. Round trip bus transportation from New York City is available. Please call 203.438.0198 for reservations. The exhibition continues through September 3, 2007.
Top of page: Mary Judge, The Segmented Form no.102, 2007. Cast concrete. Diameter 31 1/2, Height 11 inches. Courtesy of Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn NY. 12 pieces. Limited Edition Variable of 3 total.
