Artist Statement
As artists and curators, Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres are conduits for each other.
Ellen Letcher’s paintings, installation, photography, and 3D work explore the intricacies of time, from the fleeting moments of the present to the elusive possibilities of what’s to come. Julie Torres’ paintings, deceptively crude at first glance, reveal a deeper vulnerability over time. Letcher and Torres each transcend traditional mediums in their work, combining paint, unusual materials, and scavenged supports. Their influence on each other is evident and a testament to the power of partnership.
Letcher’s work plumbs the depths of unlikely connection between our shared history and personal biography. Propelled by compulsive curiosity, she makes sense of seemingly disparate ideas by piecing them together like a puzzle. Letcher invites viewers to at once straddle the known, and the unknown.
Torres’ paintings push against the expectation of what a painting is, or does. Acrylic comes straight out of the tube and is left undisturbed, or is mixed directly on the surface. Failed attempts are forever fused within the work to be resolved later. 2D paintings can become 3D objects that stand or lean, weighted under years of paint.
Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres met in 2010 at Famous Accountants, the Ridgewood NY gallery that Letcher co-founded in 2009. They moved to Hudson NY together in 2016. In 2018, Letcher and Torres took the reins at LABspace gallery in Hillsdale NY (an artist-run space founded by artist Susan Jennings) as Co-Directors. Through curating and making their own work, they are deeply engaged in the greater Hudson Valley art community. Their projects have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Two Coats of Paint, Chronogram, and on NPR and PBS
This project is made possible with funds from Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of New York State Council on the Arts
with support of the office of the Governor and the
NYS Legislature administered by CREATE Council on the Arts
Many thanks to Time & Space Ltd as the OSH 2024 fiscal sponsor and their past partnerships. We could not have done this without your support!
https://timeandspace.org
Open Studio Hudson is grateful to be the recipient of a New York State Council on the Arts 2024 Grant, facilitated by Create Council on the Arts. This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul.
Many thanks to Time & Space Ltd as the OSH 2024 fiscal sponsor and their past partnerships. We could not have done this without your support!
