Rooted in the California Bay Area counterculture of the 60s and 70s, Judith Linhares (b. 1940, Pasedena, CA) combines modes of abstract expressionism with Bay Area figuration to create uniquely irradiant paintings. Approaching figuration through abstracted forms, Linhares utilizes broad brushstrokes and fields of color to gradually develop her subjects. Celebrating the female body, collectivity, and communal experience, her band of sirens climb trees, ride on horseback, or delight in drunken revelry. Such subject matter is inspired by her upbringing and imagination, and the resulting works are surreal or fantastical depictions of everyday activities and objects. Linhares earned her BFA and MFA degrees from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. She was included in the influential exhibition "Bad Painting" at the New Museum, organized by Marcia Tucker. In the early 1990s, a traveling survey, Dangerous Pleasures: The Art of Judith Linhares, toured museums and galleries on both coasts. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally and will be included in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ Contemporary Art: Five Propositions opening October 26, 2019. Linhares is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has received multiple grants from the National Endowments for the Arts. Her work is held in many permanent collections, including the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.
