NEW YORK, NY.- Award-winning artist Leon Loughridge is a master of the multi-step reduction process in woodblock art. His latest exhibition, now on view at Gerald Peters features woodblock prints, watercolors and serigraphs of the special places in New Mexico that represent his spiritual roots and personal story.

Using the Japanese printmaking technique of moku hanga, all of his woodblock prints are created by hand, not a printing press. The hand-printing process is simple, yet labor intensive, and achieves its own vibrancy and originality as well as a unique fidelity to the landscapes of New Mexico that inspire him. The artist will be in the gallery demonstrating his print process July 11 – 15.

These familiar locations are a never-ending display of beauty. They are sites where I am continually inspired, where I am familiar with the folds and creases of the land, so much so, that I can mentally step into the landscape and walk those folds while standing at my easel. As one becomes more and more devout in caring for the landscape and observing its beauty, the ground begins to take on a sacred aspect, becoming a portal or apparition of a state of mind. My artwork from these sites are devotional statements of my encounters with the reality and beauty they offer. — Leon Loughridge

Opening his first gallery location in Santa Fe during the early 1970s, Gerald Peters has always embraced an unconventional approach. Presenting a diverse range of stylistic and aesthetic movements as well as historic periods, the Santa Fe gallery showed established artists and artworks alongside many lesser known, more esoteric works. In 1976, Peters became Georgia O’Keeffe’s exclusive dealer, representing the artist until her death in 1986; a relationship that cemented both the gallery’s position in Santa Fe’s art ecosystem and as a leading dealer of Modernist works.

Expanding the gallery’s presence to New York in the 1990s, Peters continued to build the breadth and range of the gallery’s program, bringing forward a comprehensive sculpture department to show in tandem with two-dimensional works. The sculpture program included American Neoclassical works by canonical artists like Hiram Powers, as well as those sculptors who, until very recently, were largely unrecognized, like Edmonia Lewis. Iconic sculpture of the Western canon and Modernist works by Paul Manship, Gaston Lachaise and William Zorach were also central to the gallery's sculpture focus.

Gerald Peters Gallery
Leon Loughridge: Sacred Ground
June 30th, 2023 – September 2, 2023