Homeland at William Holman Gallery

The Imagined Curse by Tom Judd

26 March-10 May 2014

“Homeland”: Tom Judd and Rebecca Bird

“Homeland” at William Holman Gallery, New York, is a joint exhibition by Tom Judd (oil paintings and collage) and Rebecca Bird (watercolours and paintings) that “[reevaluates] the American landscape and its relationship to historical narrative…[challenging] the traditional understanding of landscape as a medium that imposes rationality and subjectivity on a vision of nature…The works are filled with historical tension and traces of anxiety.

“Both artists examine the repercussions of Manifest Destiny, a belief that ultimately drove [the U.S.] from coast to coast in the 19th century and saw expansion, conquest and consumption as virtues of American progress.

“In Judd’s oil paintings and collages, various scenes–­a horse, a lone diver, a winter view of the Columbia River–­are framed by mapping lines and grids. The works draw attention to lost, residual moments through traditional tools of measurement and perspective.

“From a crackle plate to candelabra, these are the landscapes of the shadow of history, scenes recording the breakdown of narrative, irrational behaviour, and a civilization reduced to the undifferentiated material from which it is composed.”

Rebecca Bird’s landscape watercolours and paintings are “filled with the detritus of our history…[invoking] nostalgia, suggesting how traumatic events become palatable once they are situated in the past.”

Tom Judd, originally from Salt Lake City, now lives in Philadelphia. His work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Academy of Art and many private and university collections. He is also the recipient of the Tandem Press Fellowship Residency, the Millay Colony Fellowship, the MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and the Pollock-Krasner Grant.

Rebecca Bird was born in Washington State. Her works are in private and public collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art. She is the recipient of residencies at the Vermont Studio Centre and the Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency.

(adapted from the gallery’s press materials)


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65 Ludlow Street
New York, New York 10002 USA
(212) 475-1500

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Image:
The Imagined Curse
by Tom Judd
22″x30″
oil and collage on paper
2012
Courtesy of the artist and William Holman Gallery, New York