Chrysler Museum Elevates Finger Painting To An Entirely New Level

NORFOLK, Va. – (January 2012) – New York-based artist Judith Braun takes fingerpainting to an entirely new level in a site-specific installation at the Chrysler Museum of Art.  Diamond Dust: An Installation by Judith Braun will be created live in the Chrysler’s Waitzer Community Gallery from February 11 to 18, and will be on view through September 30. Admission is free.

Braun’s innovative technique involves drawing directly on the wall with her fingertips using charcoal dust, which has been crushed into a fine powder. This natural medium has been used by artists for centuries in preparatory sketches for paintings and sculptures. Braun reinvigorates this longstanding tradition by turning the preliminary procedure into a new artistic end point.  The Chrysler’s wall installation represents Braun’s largest and most extensive on-site installation to date.

“We’re inviting the general public for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—to watch Judith create a site-specific work of art in our Museum from Feb. 11 to 18,” said Amy Brandt, McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “The gallery will be open to the public while she works so everyone can marvel at the creative process.” Braun will take questions live each day from 2 to 3 p.m. as she works, as well as the evening of Wednesday, February 15. A live webcast on chrysler.org will also chronicle her progress on Diamond Dust.

Braun will lecture on her artistic process on Feb. 18 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Kaufman Theatre. Following the presentation is a community celebration of the completion of her installation. The wine-and-cheese reception from 3 to 5 p.m. is free and open to the public.

Judith Braun has been heavily involved in the New York art world since the early 1980s, and her longstanding participation in the city’s emerging network of galleries and alternative art spaces is notable. Her career began and flourished in organizations such as Art in General, Artists Space, The Drawing Center, Pierogi, NurtureArt, and White Columns.  Finishing a master in fine arts degree at the University of Albany in 1983, Braun participated in the Democracy: Cultural Participation exhibition with the renowned collaborative artistic team Group Material, composed of Julie Ault and Felix Gonzales-Torres among others.

In 1994, Marcia Tucker selected Braun’s work for the reputed Bad Girls exhibition at the New Museum, which has been credited as one of the first exhibitions to explore the impact of third-wave feminism on the visual arts.  Her work has been shown at museums, galleries and art fairs around the world.  In 2010, Braun was a contestant on Bravo’s first art-related reality TV show, Work of Art. In 2012, she will be featured in an exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums with a world-class collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America, and a new Glass Studio that opened in November. The Museum is located at 245 West Olney Road in Norfolk and is open along with the Glass Studio on Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays, noon-5 p.m. The Chrysler campus is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as on major holidays. Admission is free. Special exhibition may have an admission fee. For exhibitions, programming and special events, visit chrysler.org or call (757) 664-6200

-30-