Uniting Katherine Bradford, Lois Dodd, and Maja Ruznic, this exhibition celebrates three of the most compelling painters working in America today. While each artist approaches painting differently, all three treat the medium as a force capable of conveying memory, emotion, and lived experience. A solo exhibition by any one of these artists invites viewers to spend time immersed in their world; presenting all three together asks for even greater curiosity and willingness to look closely.
While they are separated by nearly half-a-century, and took very different paths to becoming an artist, they share the following traits: they are fiercely independent painters whose work is imbued with unmistakable formal strengths—mastery of their mediums, inventive compositions, richness of color, attention to tonal relationships, use of mark, transparency, layering, and opacity. The result of this synthesis is work that is visually immediate but slow to reveal itself. – John Yau, excerpt from the exhibition’s catalogue essay
At 99 years old, Lois Dodd has been painting for more than sixty years. Her work carries a profound sense of memory and nostalgia, capturing moments that outlast our brief time on earth. Through paint, these fleeting observations become enduring, inviting reflection not only on the beauty of a particular place or moment, but on the shared experiences that connect us all. Katherine Bradford, now 84 years old, has been painting for over fifty years. At 37, she left behind a conventional life and moved to New York City as a single mother of twins to pursue painting full-time. Her work possesses an unmistakable voice, filling dreamlike scenes with swimmers, superheroes, and enigmatic protagonists. These figures slowly unfold into narratives that remain open to interpretation. Bradford never imposes meaning on the viewer; instead, each painting offers space for personal discovery. Although Maja Ruznic has spent fewer years at the easel, her paintings demonstrate extraordinary precision and command. Her layered, psychologically rich compositions draw upon memory, spirituality, and psychoanalytic thought, weaving together quilt-like forms that connect deeply with her past. Each painting functions as a kind of portal, inviting viewers to navigate universal experiences of grief, trauma, love, loss, and transformation. These brief descriptions only begin to suggest the depth of each artist's practice. This exhibition rewards those who return to the paintings, discovering the many ways these seemingly distinct artists speak to one another.
