Walter Wickiser Gallery, NYC, presents Abstract Expressionist Bette Ridgeway: "Romancing Color" - opens April 18, 2025

At 85 years old, Bette Ridgeway, last in the lineage of Abstract Expressionist painters, is widely celebrated for her large-scale, luminous poured paintings.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Walter Wickiser Gallery, New York, presents Abstract Expressionist Bette Ridgeway’s "Romancing Color", opening on April 18, 2025.

WHERE:
Walter Wickiser Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 18 – June 18, 2025
New York, NY
+1 212 / 945 0711

https://www.walterwickisergallery.com/upcoming-1
https://www.walterwickisergallery.com/bette-ridgeway_artist-page

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 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 a 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.

“The biggest pivotal moment in my art life occurred in 1979. Paul Jenkins had asked to see my slides, so I visited his iconic studio at 831 Broadway in New York. Willem de Kooning had previously occupied this, so entering the space was a very moving experience. Jenkins took me into a little closet-sized room with a projector, screen, and a dozen of my watercolors. He turned off the lights and proceeded through, one by one. He said nothing. I watched. This man looked like God with his shock of hair and beard. I was mesmerized and awestruck. That he would even look at my work was amazing. Using his hands, he gestured over the projections, indicating where the work should be cropped. ‘Look, you are a colorist,’ he said. ‘Get rid of the boats, the barns, the trees, and all that shit, and just paint the colors. Now you have something spectacular. You should eliminate subject matter, paint big, on canvas, and your paintings will be great.’ ”

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 thirty 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 artwork 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 hardcover. At 190 pages, the book will encompass 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, 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

A new short film: Bette Ridgeway, Romancing Color 2025 - Filmed and directed by: Carlo Zanella, original soundtrack from "Rhapsody of Romance",
composed by Carlo Zanella:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy_mIKsTEvk

To arrange an interview with Bette Ridgeway or to request high-resolution images and/or additional information, please contact:

Samantha Paige Furgason
ARTWORKinternational INC. PRESS
+1 505-480-7744
sam@artworkinternational.com
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Bette Ridgeway, "Romancing Color" 2025 - Filmed and directed by: Carlo Zanella, original soundtrack from "Rhapsody of Romance", composed by Carlo Zanella