Judith Leidl

Selected Excerpts from Reviews

JUDITH J. LEIDL, M.F.A.

(In sequence from current to past)

"For Judith Leidl the landscape of the valley has been supplanted by that of the Arctic night. The northern landscape is the metaphorical home of a mendacious succubus, one as likely to disorient you in a Wolfville orchard as to isolate you in a wintry tundra. In her Pungnirtung Portfolio: Arctic Landscape IV (69), the fruitfulness of the valley is replaced by the harshness of a barren landscape penetrating one's mind. Her complex and beautiful collages, reconstructing her memories of the north, seek to evoke both the serenity and brutality that can be contained simultaneously in the landscape and in the mind…" Tom Smart, Curator for The Marion McCain Atlantic Art Exhibition 2000: Artists in a Floating World, pp.38.

Judith Leidl's collaged paintings begin a new series and commence a creative journey. Leidl uses colourful, scintillating scraps of paper to paint her tales. Ripped and ragged edges goad the audience to search for a path. These collages are visual fragments of memory both real and imagined. All nine works were created this year. Leidl's images of tulips, trees, fruit and fish invoke fanciful voyages to exotic locales. Three Tulips on Yellow conjure images of pantheons bathed in Grecian light. Tropical Seascapes I swims in a mysterious and unknown environment." Linda Hutchinson in Visual Arts News, Vol. 21, No. 3, Autumn 1999, pp. 25, 27.

"There is a duality usually present in Judith Leidl's work that uses a playfulness of description to serve as a foil or mask over the underlying serious pursuit. As painter Harold Towne has stated, "the poet is concerned with revelation," and, by the very nature of her inquiry into herself and her world, this is exactly what the artist has achieved, both for herself and for those who bear witness to her visual expression. This consistent notion of revelation is the solid bedrock of Judith's myth-like imagery, and it is a revelation that happens on many levels within each piece. This gives a depth of meaning and delight to the telling and brings us back yet again to find more to learn from the same finely detailed image. … the compelling fascination which Judith Leidl's art holds for me is the strongly consistent characteristic of her innovative style." Edward Porter, Associate Professor, NSCAD, Guest Curator for "Dreamscapes: Works on Paper, " Acadia University Art Gallery, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 1998.

"(Judith Leidl's) multi-media brand of etchings, collage and drawing don't let up. Larger messages are incrementally built upon layers of suggestive and repetitive symbols of flowers, circles, scratches, stars and swirls. United in format at first, the change and individuality of each piece deepens with each layer." David Redwood, Reviewer for Visual Arts News, Vol. 20, No. 3, autumn 1998, pp. 24-25.

"Perhaps because western culture has so effectively alienated itself from nature, attempting to depict the human figure as part of nature is a challenge that is difficult to meet. Leidl combines the figure and nature by dispensing with the surface reality of the body; she turns the figure inside-out, exposing the hidden dream world of the senses where nature resides." Mary Reardon, Artist/Printmaker, Reviewer for Visual Arts News, Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 1994, pp. 12-13

"… Leidl's work portrays an uncertain dream world; many of the images are frightening. Animal/human creatures emerge sideways and snarl or defy gravity as they plunge forward. Sometimes the static decoration halts the forward rush, imprisons it; new borders serve to restrain the dream, isolate it from our own physical reality and indicate that the dreams' richness and imaginative play are worth the terror. The borders also imply ritual and rhythm and refer to a less industrialized world where pattern is appreciated for its own sake and rituals allay fears and allow them expression." Marie Koehler-Vandergraaf, Artist/Curator, writer of the exhibition catalogue for "Contemporary Artists in Nova Scotia," Mount Saint Vincent Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1992.

"Judith Leidl's collaged etchings and mixed media pieces deserve a show of their own, though they fit in with both the Mainstream, and the Roots and Culture themes running through Contemporary Artists. Leidl's recent works represent an exciting growth for the printmaker: she has retained her signature use of decorative motifs while literally breaking out of her borders, by collaging fragments of brightly coloured paper and earlier prints, onto the irregularly-shaped surfaces. … The result is an astonishingly vibrant, vital style which reverberates deeply within the viewer's mind. It seems that the artist's frustrated anger has burst onto the page, and then burst the page itself … but each of these pieces has been painstakingly drawn and overdrawn in a time-consuming process …" Kathy Mac, Writer/Editor, Visual Arts News, Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 1992, p. 19.

"… Leidl has a remarkably original and thorough vision now, as she further maps out her own interior, psychological dream world of howling dogs and women and men, and jungles, a world of animal/people relationships that is easily absorbed by the viewer in a felt, non-verbal way." Elissa Barnard, Writer for "At the Galleries," Chronicle-Herald, July 16, 1992, B2.

"… Judith Leidl already demonstrates the decisive individuality, the disciplined unfolding of a distinctive vision. … These accomplished etchings, lithos, drawings, aquatints and collages are evidence of a dense and sophisticated visual language. … Leidl's handling of spatial composition is very interesting, utterly abandoning any reference with conventional Renaissance space for a linear narrative space more characteristic of hieroglyphics, petroglyphs and Inuit art. … Leidl's men and women ornament themselves with neckties and necklaces, and with earrings and other erotic piercings. Small textural marks, representing body hair, dreams, and sexual attributes are contained with a fluid outline. The overall effect is an exhuberant celebration of pattern." Robin Metcalf, Curator/Writer, Artsatlantic #28, Spring 1987, p. 11. Review of Judith Leidl - Etchings, Lithographs and Drawings," Dresden Galleries, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1986.

Oriel Fine Art
11 Bay Street
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 1L7
Tel: 902 542-2772 Fax: 902 542-1636
E-mail: orielfineart@ns.sympatico.ca

website design: holmpage.com