Judith Kruger, born 1955, is an American, visual artist whose multidisciplinary work addresses Human-Environment connectivity and their shared vulnerabilities. Her current ecofeminist work examines the specific relationship between women and ecology. She is recognized internationally for her advocacy of inorganic and organic, natural pigments and historic, ecological painting processes.
Judith's solo exhibitions include Drawing Ground, Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT, Mingled Terrain, Richardson Art Museum, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC (2018), An Alchemic View, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut (2015), Touching Rain, Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY (2015) Outside In, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona (2014) and New Paintings at Morrison Gallery, Kent, Connecticut (2013). Select group exhibitions include Agawami Museum Hall, Tokushima, Japan, Sato Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, John and Robyn Horn Gallery, Penland, NC, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, Gallery G, Hiroshima, Japan, Pallazo Dell'Annunziata, Matera, Italy, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL and The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA.
Judith's work is held in private, public and corporate collections: some of which include Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA and Phipps Conservatory’s Center for Sustainable Landscapes, Pittsburgh, PA. She was commissioned to create an outdoor-site specific, sculptural work in honor of Earth Day (2023) for University of St Joseph, West Hartford, CT.
In 2008, Judith initiated the course Nihonga: Then and Now at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to teach her course Getting the Dirt on Paint in the Chicago Public School System. Her painting workshops and studio residencies, based on these courses, currently garner an international following. Judith leads an annual Master Abstraction Workshop-in-Residence as part of Mass MoCA’s Assets for Artists Residency program since 2016. In 2011, Judith was awarded a Target Professional Development grant. She is a recipient of a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists matching grant (2016), a Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship grant (2019) and an Artist Fellowship Grant, NYC (2019). She served as Scholar-Artist in Residence at Anneliese School, Laguna Beach, CA (2016, 2017, 2018), supported by Seeds Arts and Education and Artist in Residence at Wofford College’s Environmental Studies Dept, Spartanburg, SC (2019).
Additionally, between 1977 and 2007, Judith collaborated with artisans in over a dozen countries on applied art and design signature licensing manufacturing projects for notable retailers including Crate & Barrel, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and Gumps. Between 2003-2008, she travelled extensively throughout Japan, India and Thailand researching and sourcing her signature natural dyed and mineral pigmented stoneware, linen, metal and wood home products, funded by Carlisle Companies, Inc.
She has served as a member of the Inaugural Dean’s Advisory Board of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Syracuse University Chicago Arts Council Board, and Chicago’s Ravenswood ArtWalk Board. Her fundraising efforts, which mobilized the creativity of hundreds of artists and designers in the Chicago area, resulted in the donation of significant funds to UCLA AIDS Institute to further AIDs research.
She received her BFA in illustration from Syracuse University and her MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. Judith Kruger Studio is located in the former Erector toy factory in New Haven, CT, 75 miles Northeast of midtown Manhattan.
