Since the beginning of her career in the 1980’s Judy Ledgerwood has been exploring light, color, and space in painting. Ledgerwood combines the formal vocabulary of concrete abstraction with influences from pop culture to create vividly colored compositions. Her paintings combine decorative patterning, central to textile design and other traditionally female crafts, with bold color and assertive brush strokes, traits associated with the male-dominated tradition of gestural abstraction. Often using stereotypically "feminine" elements, such as pastel colors and stylized floral patterns, Ledgerwood's work merges formalist and feminist concerns. For this reason, the sensuality in Ledgerwood’s paintings is both immediate and subversive with the ability to resonate beyond its initial impact. For Ledgerwood, content lies in chroma's ability to create moments of simultaneous harmony and disequilibrium. The aggression of her color palette and paint application undermines the stability created by the repetition of her marks.
Ledgerwood was born in Brazil, Indiana in 1959. She lives and works in Chicago, IL and has exhibited internationally at numerous institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
Judy Ledgerwood
Titled after Frederic Edwin Church’s 1860 painting of a sunset, Twilight in the Wilderness presents four new paintings inspired by the drama and color of refracted light just before nightfall. Monumental in scale, these works blaze with hot pinks, golden yellows, burnt oranges, teals, and vivid greens—colors that heighten the works’ radiance and emotional intensity. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue designed by HOUR, featuring an essay by art historian Helen Molesworth and an introduction by the artist.
Published on the occasion of Judy Ledgerwood: Twilight in the Wilderness at GRAY, exhibited September 10 - November 1, 2025.
Essay by Helen Molesworth
Hardcover
88 pages
English
2025
Published by GRAY
With powerful, confident gestures, Judy Ledgerwood fills her gigantic canvases with rows of large forms, such as circles and loops, which initially recall such male-dominated styles as Abstract Realism or Pop art. But Ledgerwood's formal vocabulary is also full of references to ornamental and crafts traditions and decorative color combinations.
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Hatje Cantz; Bilingual edition (January 31, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3775724214
ISBN-13: 978-3775724210
Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds