Katherine Dolgy Ludwig — Biography



 

 The twelve new abstract watercolor word paintings presented here by painter Katherine Dolgy Ludwig as the beginning of American Beauty Series, are surprisingly bright for the medium and overtly large scale – in shape and color visually hot with feeling for America and New York in particular. The artist explores the music given to her as gifts by her subjects, which is included as a sound piece to accompany the paintings. The subjects are all former strangers met by chance in the street or on the internet. The work is libidinous, sexually psychedelic with patriotism, and ironic. The painter has titled the pieces after the music that inspires them, calling the work successful if the viewer feels the urge to sing.

The artist has had a well-known figurative practice, with an international list of collectors of multiple pieces. Most recently invited in June 2007 to show forty portraits at the National Arts Club Gramercy Park, she is currently actively involved in painting projects throughout the city. Compared to Dianne Arbus, Keith Haring, and Jeremy Deller, her work has been called New Populism, painting reportage onsite. In communities as diverse as London Southwark Police, Vegas Playboy Bunnies, Manhattan Gifted Schoolchildren, and Toronto Beach Nudists, the artist looks for the diversity of individualism inside stereotypical subjects.

Born in Toronto and collected widely in London, the artist now makes her studio in Brooklyn.