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Relief and lithography with aluminum powder dusting

Chromatic Patterns for the Graham Foundation is a 2014 site-specific, immersive installation by Chicago-based artist Judy Ledgerwood, created for the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago. The installation transformed the first-floor galleries of the Foundation’s historic Madlener House into a floor-to-ceiling field of vibrant fluorescent color and metallic pattern, dramatically altering the experience of the architectural space.

Following the exhibition, Ledgerwood produced Chromatic Patterns After the Graham Foundation, a trio of lithographic and relief prints that echo the colors and motifs of the original installation. Rendered in fluorescent red, orange, and pink, and enhanced with the sparkle of metallic silver, the prints serve as a permanent record of the otherwise ephemeral work. Published by Manneken Press in 2014, the prints were issued in editions of 20 and are signed, titled, and numbered in pencil on the verso.

Judy Ledgerwood

Judy Ledgerwood is a contemporary artist based in Chicago. Since the 1980’s she has been exploring light, color, and space in paintings that combine the formal vocabulary of concrete abstraction with influences from pop culture to create vividly colored compositions. She combines decorative patterning, elements of textile design and other traditionally female crafts, with bold color and assertive brush strokes, traits associated with the historically male-dominated tradition of gestural abstraction. Often using stereotypically “feminine” elements, such as pastel colors and stylized floral patterns, Ledgerwood merges formalist and feminist concerns in works that are both sensual and subversive, with the ability to resonate beyond their initial impact.