Judith Belzer’s current exhibition features eleven sizeable works on canvas, paintings in acrylic gouache and flashe that fill an imposing, gargantuan gallery space well suited to a collection of monumental work that demands open space and close attention. Belzer’s mounting feelings of anxiety, keenly reflected in these works, relate to her concerns about climate change and the overheated political environment. Rather than heightening such feelings, the paintings place us in a quiet, contemplative space where we can, indeed must, engage in a bit of introspection.
“Weather Report #3” is an immersive work at 72 by 102 inches. Rendered in naturalistic hues of blue, white, and grey, it reads as an aerial perspective, a glimpse of a distant landscape below through a layer of clouds, as from a plane. Along with the atmospheric environments, the canvases are liberally marked with insistent groupings of small light-colored shapes. In this work the shapes are outlined in dark hues, paint or graphite, creating an inescapable visual noise that disrupts what might otherwise present a serene, if moody, vista.
