FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LINDA RIDGWAY:

While

April 14 – May 14, 2005

  

The Charles Cowles Gallery is pleased to present LINDA RIDGWAY’s first New York solo exhibition. Working with bronze, RIDGWAY creates unique sculptures reflecting her ambivalent feelings about traditional "women's work," suggesting both celebration and repression.

RIDGWAY’s subjects appear to be fragile, delicate flowers with thorns intact, crocheted doilies, and a silk covered pillow. Despite their fragile nature, by casting them in bronze she gives them permanence, a sort of invincibility. She maintains the original nature of her subjects through a unique bronze casting method, and in the case of the thorned flora, the dichotomy of beauty and cruelty remains unscathed and palpable.

RIDGWAY says, “Recently, I realized I was constructing exhibitions as visual tales or short stories. I’m becoming much more literal. As stories become clear in my mind, the imagery appears. I’m from a minimalist generation, but now I link abstract thoughts of nature and feminine handiwork. Relationships with women and friends who give me things are important to my work. They create a circle of imagery and ideas. While refers to the last word in the text of “A Room of One’s Own” written by Virginia Wolf.”

RIDGWAY’S works present a physical poetry, some textual as in pieces like But for a While and The Conversation, and others more in spirit like Husband and Airloom. In The Conversation, two pillow-like forms question our perceptions of color. One declares that "Pink is Weak" and the other retorts "Is Blue Strong," but the text is subtly crocheted into a field of white with the white wall behind making their declarations softer spoken. But for a While is a pair of words, "But" and "While", also cast-bronze crochet, look forcibly wrenched apart. "But" suggests a contradiction and "While" suggests a continuation or compromise.

Born in Indiana, RIDGWAY received her MFA from Tulane University, New Orleans. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and The Dallas Museum of Art. RIDGWAY is currently having a solo exhibition, Reconsider, at the El Paso Museum of Art, on view through May 8, 2005. RIDGWAY presently lives and works in Dallas.

The exhibition will be on view at the Charles Cowles Gallery at 537 West 24th Street,  between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea. Hours are 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 14, from 6-8pm.

Above image: Husband, 2005, bronze and silk 16 x 38 x 20 inches