Bio

Alison Judd (b. 1982, New York) is a Boston-based painter, printmaker and curator. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Art History from Brandeis University, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Massachusetts College of Art. In 2019, she founded Gallery Tempo, showcasing local artists through pop-up gallery shows at available retail spaces in Greater Boston

In addition to curating shows for local art spaces, Judd has created award-winning pieces of abstract artwork using her own handmade stencils and oil paints.

Fascinated by the human mind, Judd finds that the dual themes of memory and nature offer endless inspiration for her work. Judd’s current body of work, The Memory of Leaves, explores the concept that physical objects hold memories within them.

Judd is a board member of multiple regional arts advocacy groups and is also the mother of three children.

You can follow Alison Judd on Instagram @alisonjudd.art and at www.alisonjudd.com

Statement

As a Painter and Printmaker, my abstract artworks explore the mind and memory as part of the human experience. I consider relationships between the mind, nature and the perception of memory in my artwork. Central is the notion that physical items or marks may hold traces of memories within them.

My work is an invitation to explore the mind. Through the artwork I encourage contemplation of the relationships between shapes, colors, and materials, while posing questions about what memories and experiences form identity.

In my current series, The Memory of Leaves, I explore this concept through handmade leaf stencils depicting how memories distill moments into iconic concepts in the mind. Such as how a forest walk through sun-dappled leaves or the imprint of wet leaves on a sidewalk becomes an idea etched in the mind. The forms that emerge represent the ephemeral nature of life: the actual leaves may be gone, but their impression remains, permanently enshrined in both memory and painting.

I create my work similar to how memories are made; building thin layers one on top of another. Just like the mind has both working and long-term memory, my process often involves scraping and wiping away newer layers of paint to expose the surface underneath, sometimes revealing older paintings with their own memories. I combine these echoes of older paintings with my stencils, layers of paint and painterly marks to create something entirely new.

Memory shifts over time. While the artwork is static, the abstraction of a figurative object is meant to insinuate the changeable nature of memory. The restful yet vibrant abstract works are a chance to wander freely into a landscape of one’s own mind. They offer the viewers a chance to both remember and to let go.