About
Pamela Smith Hudson ‘s first appearance at Craig Krull Gallery was her inclusion in our group exhibition, of rope and chain her bones are made, in the spring of 2021. This exhibition, which traveled to the Bakersfield Museum of Art (through May 6, 2023), brought together nine LA women whose work employs tactile, raw materials, and displays the evidence of their hands in rhythmic processes and repetitive acts. For her first solo exhibition at CKG, entitled Empty Space, Hudson combines aspects of printmaking through the layering of paint, wax and collage to build thickly complex textured surfaces. She describes her paintings as “topographical…where each layer is constructed, then deconstructed.” Though entirely abstract, the work reflects her exploration of Los Angeles, its density, homelessness, traffic, and unease. A child of Compton, California, her earliest memory was of people running in the streets when they heard that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Her Afro-indigenous grandmother schooled her in diverse traditions and, in fact, two works from this exhibition, Rain Dance 1 and 2, were inspired by her. Hudson’s organic layering of elemental materials such as wax and graphite also alludes to her environmental concerns about increased wildfires, melting glaciers and a polluted ocean. These subjects are suggested in lines resembling tire tracks and overlapping patterns that give the impression of “aerial, satellite, excavation energy,” or ancient symbols etched in stone.
