Walter Wickiser Gallery, New York, presents Abstract Expressionist Bette Ridgeway’s Romancing Color, opening April 18, 2025.
WHERE:
Walter Wickiser Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 18 – June 18, 2025
New York, NY
212.945.0711
https://www.walterwickisergallery.com/upcoming-1
Pushing the boundaries of light, color and dimension, artist Bette Ridgeway is the last in the lineage of Abstract Expressionist painters. Boasting a decades-long mentorship with the acclaimed painter Paul Jenkins, the 85-year-old artist is celebrated for her large-scale, luminous poured paintings, which have garnered her international recognition. Her latest solo exhibition with Walter Wickiser, her second with the gallery, marks the 25th anniversary of her inaugural Millennium exhibition with Wickiser in 1999.
Her three decades of mentorship by the acclaimed Abstract Expressionist Paul Jenkins set her on her lifetime journey of non-objective painting on large canvas. Through her work, she explores the interrelation and change of color in various conditions and on a variety of surfaces.
Inspired by the high desert light of her studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ridgeway continually interrogates her lifelong romance with color and movement through her work. She has spent the last 30 years developing her signature technique, called “layering light,” in which she uses many layers of thin, transparent acrylics on linen and canvas to produce a fluidity and viscosity similar to traditional watercolor. It is a delicate process: Ridgeway carefully positions the hills and valleys of the canvas, building a topography to control the speed of the paint as it moves across the surface.
In the catalog for her Millenium exhibition at Walter Wickiser in 1999, critic Jonathan Goodman wrote about a specific painting, Alpha, saying, “Alpha feels very much like an image of arrested motion, poised to flare into movement as soon as one turns away.”
As Ridgeway says, “My paintings are a spontaneous occurrence, born of experience, but evolving in the process of creation. My technique is controlled improvisation. Gravity is my medium. Images are caught with intent.”
The resulting image is a study in movement: sometimes kinetic and full of exuberance, sometimes bold and unflinching, sometimes languid and contemplative, but always resplendent with formidable, emotive color.
As a complement to her exhibition with Walter Wickiser, Ridgeway is proud to announce the upcoming publication of her latest book, Romancing Color, published by Snap Collective Publishing in Copenhagen, Denmark. Printed in Germany, stitch bound and hard cover at 190 pages, the book will cover Ridgeway’s early career, her decades-long mentorship by celebrated Abstract Expressionist Paul Jenkins, her rise to a successful career as a contemporary artist, and the current evolution of her work, which, according to Ridgeway, “is more complex and satisfying than ever.”
Copies of Romancing Color can be purchased through Snap Collective Publishing.
Notes on the Artist: Ridgeway’s recent awards include Art Premier Prize, Contemporary Art Station, Barcelona, ES, 2024; International Prize Velázquez & Goya, Barcelona, ES, 2024; The Leonardo Da Vinci International Prize, Florence, IT, 2024; Sandro Botticelli International Prize, 2024; Collectors Art Prize 2023/Contemporary Art Curator Magazine; Harmony for Humanity: The Global Consciousness Art Prize, Contemporary Art Collectors, 2023; and Michelangelo International Prize, Rome, IT, 2023.
Ridgeway’s work has been featured in many additional books, among them: Contemporary Celebrity Masters, Autumn 2024, published by Effeto Arte, Rome, Italy; Monk: Art and the Soul, UK, Anthology 2020; International Contemporary Masters 2010 published by World Wide Art Books; 100 Artists of the Southwest published by Schiffer Books; Masters of Today and 100 Famous Contemporary Artists, both published by WOA Publishing, Stockholm, Sweden.
Ridgeway lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Website:
www.ridgewaystudio.com
To arrange an interview with Bette Ridgway or to request high resolution images and/or additional information, please contact:
Samantha Paige Furgason
ARTWORKinternational INC PRESS
505-480-7744
sam@artworkinternational.com
