Lois Dodd
“Outside In: Recent Small Panels”
New York. 25 East 73rd Street, Second & Third Floors, Buzzer 3
Known for her ability to unveil the extraordinary in the ordinary, Dodd’s work serves as a visual hymn to the essence of nature. Dodd’s paintings are characterized by her remark- able ability to distill complex scenes into their essential geometric elements with bold colors and confident, swift brushstrokes. Her use of light and shadow lend her paintings a masterful balance between realism and abstraction, giving viewers specificity with as little paint as possible. “Usually, my subject is something I see repeatedly and know in different lights—morning, afternoon, or night light,” shares Dodd. “We live in nature and are a part of it: paint is my preferred means of celebrating nature.”
Mayberry and Sky, 2022, oil on Masonite, 11 11/16 x 20 11/16 inches. © Lois Dodd, courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York.
In “Outside In,” Dodd’s windows become portals to the ever-changing world, with views of the exterior landscape—including architecture, trees, and plants—captured in her signa- ture simplicity. The exhibition also includes intricate plant studies, where leaves, flowers, bark, and twigs are not merely subjects but conduits for Dodd’s exploration of the natural world. These works offer a fascinating interplay between the external environment and the artist’s interior space, as plant life finds a new context within Dodd’s studio. At once familiar and renewed, these panels reveal the deep connection Dodd possesses to her immediate surroundings. “Lois Dodd doesn’t do drama,” says Washington Post art critic Sebastian Smee. “She paints, instead, stillness and silence, always in a stripped-back style notable for its acute perceptiveness and absence of fussiness.”
