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I_lands. Yoojoo Kim + Judith Trepp

26 Aug. – 26 Sep. 2023, Lechbinska Gallery

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Judith Trepp: Painting as an Interplay of Matter and Space 

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Trepp's painting explores the expressive potential of colour as a synthesis of matter and space - a process that begins with the slightest application of acrylic, oil, tempera, or ink, on handmade cotton paper and linen. Through careful observation of liquid media on these stable, yet unpredictable surfaces, Trepp allows a certain alchemy to take its course, studying the reactions that occur as one comes into contact with the other, giving rise to new colours, textures, and topographies. Trepp then intervenes in this cycle to divert or amplify their effects, producing ever more subtle alloys and appended forms: paper works marked by creases and folds (reminiscent of fabric), and linen caked in dense, granular deposits (stiffened into seemingly rigid sheets) - both drawing our attention towards the radical transformation of colour materials when becoming spatial, while unable to grasp just what was formed by hand or by chance.

 

After graduating from Bard College, New York, in 1967, Judith Trepp was one of the earliest residents of the Westbeth Artists Community, the first government-sponsored artist residency programme in the United States. She moved to Switzerland in 1970, living between Switzerland and Italy from 1975 to 1982, and between Switzerland and the United States from 1989 to 2018. Trepp has written art criticism for the International Herald Tribune and worked as a correspondent for ARTnews. Alongside important solo and group exhibitions such as “Beyond line” (2011) at the Provincetown Art Museum (PAAM), she has featured in numerous international fairs including the London Art Fair, Kunst Zurich, Art Miami, Art Chicago, KIAF Seoul, Arte Fiera Bologna, and Art Cologne. From November 2012 to March 2013, Trepp participated in the prestigious residency programme at La Cité International des Arts in Paris, sponsored by the Swiss Artists Association (VISARTE).