Judith Greenwald “Belonging”

Ceres Gallery

[Image: Judith Greenwald "The Doorway" (2020) Oil paint and cold wax on cradled panel 12 x 12 x 1 5/8 in.]

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In her show Belonging, Judith Greenwald combines two bodies of work. The first involves assemblages that grew directly from the dislocation of the Trump years and of Covid, She says, “With the acceleration of climate change, we are acutely aware that our belonging to this universe, and more specifically to this planet, is precarious at best. So too is belonging to country. During the Trump tenancy and beyond, we were all faced with disruptions and dislocations that felt painful and dangerous. Immigrants were not just unwelcome, but were incarcerated at our borders. And then came Covid which threatened even further our sense of belonging. We were isolated from those very institutions (family, friends, community) that helped us to feel grounded. Our sense of belonging has, indeed, been deeply challenged.”

Greenwald has chosen to focus on belonging rather than its absence. She attempted to take disparate materials (e.g., old wood covered by moss and lichens, wood that she covered with collaged materials, slats that had been rusted and oxidized, pieces that had been painted with encaustic, acrylic, or cold wax with oil paint, wire, plaster gauze) and combine them in a way that made them “belong” together.

During the isolation of Covid, Greenwald delved into a medium that was new to her— cold wax and oil paint. She then paired these paintings with poems that offered some kind of solace. Of this project she said, “In the process of making this work, I learned in a deeper way how I belonged to the art and the art belonged to me. And, all of that helped me to belong to myself in a new way.”