January 6, 2024 - February 17, 2024
Gallery reception: Saturday, January 6 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm
We are pleased to announce the exhibition “Nancy Youdelman: Dreamwork,” a presentation of photo-based artworks from the 1970’s accompanied by a selection of sculptural wall reliefs of more recent vintage.
Join us for an opening reception on Saturday, January 6 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. “Nancy Youdelman: Dreamwork” is presented in conjunction with “Mary Jones: Significant Properties.” Both exhibitions continue through February 17 at as-is.la
The words “dream” and “work,” roots of the Freudian term “dreamwork,” would appear to tug in opposite directions. Whereas “dream” promises the free play of imagination unencumbered by responsibilities, “work” suggests, well, the opposite. Nancy Youdelman cheerfully accepts the creative challenge of reconciling these opposed forces as she does here in an always charming if sometimes unsettling body of artworks that date back to the early 1970’s and forward to the present day.
Youdelman (born New York, 1948) is a founding member of California’s feminist art movement. Indeed, she participated in the first iteration of Judy Chicago’s Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno in 1970 and followed Chicago and the program to its more prominent home at California Institute of the Arts soon after. In Los Angeles, Youdelman contributed to key historic feminist events including “Womanhouse” (1972) and “Womanspace Gallery” (1973-74) as well as the important if not yet fully appreciated “Double X Collective” (1975-85).
Sometime after completing her MFA at UCLA, Youdelman returned to teach art at Cal State Fresno and to make art in nearby Clovis where she resides today.