The installation by Harminder Judge features a stark palette dominated by black and white, with hints of red subtly emerging. The composition centers on an amorphous black shape set against a textured white backdrop, creating a tension between boldness and subtlety. The artwork reflects abstract expressionism with its gestural marks and color contrasts, hinting at Indian neo-tantric influences. Judge’s technique of layering pigments in plaster results in a textured, almost ethereal appearance. Conceptually, the piece serves as a 'portal,' inviting contemplation on materiality and transformation, rooted in the artist's personal and cultural experiences. ...
Harminder Judge creates sculptural works that resonate with a rare intensity, drawing on the visual languages of Indian neo-tantric painting as well as the abstract expressionist and color field movements of the 20th century. His practice is an alchemical exploration of material, in which pigments are layered into wet plaster and then subjected to prolonged processes of excavation, sanding, polishing, and oiling. The resulting compositions take the form of expansive modular panels and ethereal shapes that seem to hover slightly off the wall, allowing color, form, and texture to emerge gradually and intensify over time. The surfaces of Judge’s works shimmer with a luminous energy, where monolithic forms, shifting horizons, and radiant fields of color rise from the dense, granite-like substrate beneath. This dynamic interplay between granular solidity and cosmic expansiveness evokes a sense of material transformation, with the works appearing simultaneously crystallized and in flux. Judge describes his creations not as paintings but as portals—spaces through which viewers can contemplate and engage with broader, more expansive ideas. Many of his titles reference formative experiences from his adolescence, such as participating in intimate funeral rites in his family’s village in Punjab. These encounters with the physical and spiritual transformation of the body into ash inform the metaphysical undertones of his practice, where material and immaterial, corporeal and transcendental, converge. ...
