Photo: Hrag Vartanian for Hyperallergic
Though Judith Godwin is often categorized as an Abstract Expressionist, this exhibition of her work from the 1970s and ’80s makes the case that those decades (which she considered her peak period) are worth serious reconsideration. Drawing on Color Field painting, mid-century abstraction, and Pattern & Decoration, among other influences, these canvases feel less stylized and more individualistic, as she combines and transforms her sources into visual maelstroms. She often deploys white on the surface to challenge the eye, though in “In Circle/Encircle” (1985) she also incorporates a small textile fragment — a reminder that she was willing to push her art in unexpected directions. “Peach Bud” (c. 1985) is particularly powerful: She appears to have distilled a lifetime of lessons into a work of inexhaustible depth. And this Saturday, April 4, at 3pm, there will be an activation with the Martha Graham Company (RSVP here), as dancers perform “Lamentation” and “Ekstasis” as “a living counterpart to Godwin’s sweeping gestures.”
—Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic
April 3, 2026
