Veronica Bruce Woodward

"Playing Field" and other checker based works initiated from the idea of checkerboard being “on trend” and the funny relationship between fine art, interior design and market trends with an underlying criticality. The checkerboard (and notions of the grid in general) carries such loaded history and can be seen throughout contemporary work as well, one example being recent works by Rebecca Morris. Upon closer inspection these works reveal "the failings of the grid” as the squares are imperfectly cut with scissors and sides skew. When my youngest son came into my studio one day and began playing with my small, handheld, sculptures on the grid paintings on the floor, I couldn’t help but think how my assemblage and painting-bead sculptures resembled chess pieces.  I enjoy the idea of painting being a "playing field" in general. The “Talisman” sculptures relate to the playing-field paintings as figurative accompanying pieces. Thus, this underlying theme of chess, games, play and figures emerged with these interrelated bodies of work. 

All of the works ranging from standing sculptures to wall works,  are composed of materials in my path, living with my kids,  and the basic components of “a painting” with stretcher keys, picture hanging wire and canvas.  In some of these works I used leftover marble tiles from my home, swatches of fabric for window treatments, and as usual, my own work, dismantled, cut apart and made new. Over the last few years I've relied upon my own work as my main material, destroying it to rebuild, and with these checker works I moved into my collection of works on paper I tore down in 2018.  I’m playing with the grid and squares as opposed to strips like in my Stabilize series. My sculptural wall works are also extensions of “Stabilize” as the “beads” are small leftover strips of my paintings rolled and tied with strings of the canvas. I initially began making these beads in 2020 with the leftover parts making my “Stabilize” strip works.

Within my paintings, I am intrigued by the layering effect of gestural marks, the solid grid, and how to make subtle moves to push and pull between this interaction, including binding the frame to the work so it can not be removed such as in the work titled “Checkerboard is so in right now.” I’m thinking about play, moments of simplification, figurative "chess" like relic pieces and considering the notion of creating compositions being a continual process of play. I explore multiple ongoing series in an autobiographical way, deconstructing the traditions of painting along the way.

-Veronica Woodward