Judith Linhares
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Judith Linhares Frieze Online Viewing Room July 27 – August 1, 2021 “Light and color are my home base and inspirational core. The instant I paint violet next to green or yellow next to blue, I am on my way.” - Judith Linhares, 2006, BOMB Magazine P·P·O·W is pleased to present a selection of vibrant gouaches by Judith Linhares for Frieze Viewing Room, Los Angeles Edition. Spanning the past twelve years, the works on view showcase recurring motifs that foreground the artist’s distinct mark-making. Balancing expressionism and allegory, Linhares has formed an influential aesthetic which has been perpetually exercised over the course of her five-decade career. Fueled by the permissive, psychedelic atmosphere of the 1960s, Linhares continues to investigate the relationship between the conscious and unconscious, drawing upon her dreams for mythic narratives and kaleidoscopic compositions that pulsate with color. The backbone of her painting practice, Linhares approaches these gouaches as choreographed performances wherein the desired image must be resolved not just in her mind’s eye, but also in her body. Linhares described her process in a 2006 interview with Madison Smartt Bell for BOMB Magazine, saying: I make gouache studies […] until I have come up with an image that can be read in its totality. At that point I have internalized the image, or memorized it. Then I go to the larger canvas using oil paint. It is important for me to stay in the process of putting the paint down; the link to kinetic activity is all-important to me. In a selection of eight works on paper from 2016, titled Lovers or Lovers on the Plain, a couple reclines on a patterned afghan, with a lion looming in the background. Broad, hot strokes of yellow and red alternately evoke a sunset, a savanna and a circus tent, while the lovers’ bodies shift from pale pink into lilac and magenta. Charging the scene with lust, longing or menace, this tonal experimentation doubled as a bodily exercise while Linhares prepared the canvas for Beach, 2019, a flamboyant opus now in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Linhares frequently mixes her own gouache to achieve a saturated palette that is both generative and symbolic. By embodying different archetypes and attitudes within her pigments, Linhares imbues her economical compositions with psychological complexity. Linhares has said: I have certain characters who live in my inner world, who are particular to my experience. You might not see a godmother in a yellow swath of paint, but I would recognize her right away. And I hope the godmother’s relationship with the smaller figures is both nurturing and sinister. With her distinctly lush, almost edible colors, Linhares depicts mythological women communing with nature alongside animated portraits of animals and floral still lives. Rendered in muted tones, Bill’s Cat, 2019 exudes a comedic sourness, while a trio of Laughing Zebras from 2018 lounge with their hind legs crossed, flaunting cheeky grins. In Astors, 2010, or Yellow Pitcher, 2010, assorted blooms emerge from textured vessels set atop embellished tablecloths and curtains. A riotous display of color and pattern, these paintings display a well-honed theatricality that gives each arrangement their due: a spotlight at center-stage. Rooted in the California Bay Area Counterculture of the 60s and 70s, Judith Linhares (b. 1940) earned her BFA and MFA degrees from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. She was included in the influential Bad Painting exhibition at the New Museum, organized by Marcia Tucker, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and multiple grants from the National Endowments for the Arts. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; among others. Linhares will present her second exhibition with P.P.O.W in April 2022. .