For her first solo exhibition at Denver's Plus Gallery, Laura Krudener will be exhibiting a new body of paintings entitled Suspended Chaos. Krudener's paintings explore the rapid motion in which we experience visual imagery in a world of ceaseless news feeds. Through various poured techniques and layered drawings, each layer of Krudener's paintings is informed from the movement of the previous layer. Finding a suspended stillness in the motion of the paint, Krudener's paintings become a meditation on movement, and the constant search for stillness.
Abstract expressionism in painting has been a prevalent force amongst American painters of the last sixty plus years and has also come to define Colorado's contemporary art scene in a substantial way. "Colorado Abstract" was released in 2009, the first of its kind massive volume of notable locals, followed shortly by the news of the Clyfford Still Museum finding a permanent home in Denver. Riding right on the cusp of those two occurrences is Krudener's arrival in Denver, a huge new talent working in a vein that hearkens back to some of the most credible moments in abstract painting, while pushing the current trajectory in bold, distinct ways.
Krudener works on raw canvas, crafted with receding edges that give the surface a feeling of floating in midair. Through a multiplicity of techniques, including heavy pours, embellishments of charcoal and marker, as well as bold, often contrary colors, Krudener delivers a state of motion and suspension within a compositional congruity of extreme panache. The beauty is in the subtle details as well as the joyous effects when these combinations cohere into volumes that are increasingly more majestic and complex. Her tactical goals also carry a social relevance that is rare in the genre, and all the better for it.
Laura Krudener received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2009. She has exhibited her paintings recently in a solo exhibition at Space Gallery in Denver, and in group exhibitions such as "Vernissage" at Fort Mason in San Francisco, "White Space" at Design Within Reach in Boulder, and "Transparencies," at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. Krudener's paintings are in several prominent national collections including Janet Jackson and Dame Elizabeth Taylor, her painting "Ruby Melting Sky" remaining in Taylor's estate. She was profiled several times in the last year, including Modern in Denver's fall issue 2012, the most recent issue of Luxe Magazine, and the National online publication Curbed.com
