The Hermit Project

Do you remember what your Grandmother’s attic smelled like?  Artist Tom Judd has created a three dimensional experience to bring forth those kind of memories, a “haunting mystery of an historical reenactment,” Los Angeles writer Gerard Brown comments.  This installation explores memories and emotions thought to be long buried.  
            Originally exhibited at Stremmel Gallery in Reno Nevada, Judd's “Hermit Project” is a three dimensional structure.  Upon entering this room, the viewer will find themselves entering a tomb-like household that’s still alive with the paraphernalia and belongings of a fictional person that lived there in isolation.  It has been created as a total human-sized environment, taking the form of a small cabin, complete with peeling bits of wallpaper, scraps of old magazine pages, broken furniture, and empty bottles. A makeshift radio plays the 1966 World Series complete with nostalgic ads.
            This work is partly influenced by Judd’s childhood encounter with an abandoned house.  Years later on a river trip in Idaho on the main fork of the Salmon River, Judd encountered a hermit’s compound, which also contributed to his inspiration in creating this provocative installation. 
            Judd’s mixed media paintings in the adjacent gallery space are the result of the same sensibilities.  They are executed on the surfaces of collaged found items, including wallpaper, fabric, metal, and maps.  He states that his work “has always been about the passing of time, memory, the fleeting nature of life.” 

Biography

Tom Judd was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey in 1952, but grew up from the age of two with two sisters and a brother in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Thomas Grant Judd, a Salt Lake native, was a grandchild of the famous Mormon president Heber J. Grant, although Judd's family were not active church members. Judd's mother, Virginia Rapp Leonard was originally from Indiana.

Judd attended the University of Utah from 1970 to 1972 when he departed on a six-month leave of absence to travel in Europe. He returned in 1973 to attend the Philadelphia College of Art where he studied with Rafael Ferrer, Bob Kulicke, and Larry Day, graduating with a BFA in painting in 1975.

Judd first exhibited his art work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1979, where at 25 he was included in a survey show entitled "Contemporary Drawing: Philadelphia" curated by Ann Percy and Frank Goodyear. The museum purchased a work from that exhibit for their permanent collection.

Judd went on to exhibit his work in distinguished commercial galleries beginning with his first solo exhibit at Eric Makler Gallery in Philadelphia in 1980. Judd was soon recognized in New York City, including Monique Knowlton and Coe Kerr Gallery. In 1984 he was given a solo exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and had work purchased for their permanent collection. In 1990, Judd had a ten-year retrospect at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. The show also traveled to the Salt Lake Art Center the following year.

Judd has also participated in many public art projects including a billboard next to an interstate highway in Philadelphia, a seventy foot chalk drawing in Salt Lake City, and his self-curated exhibition in New York City with twelve invited artists entitled "The Chalk board Chronicles." He recently completed an exterior mural for the city of Philadelphia and a three wall mural for Friday Saturday Sunday Restaurant in Philadelphia.

Judd lives in Philadelphia with his wife Kiki, twenty-one year old son William and their three year old daughter, Astrid Sofia. He has shown extensively for the last 30 years in prominent galleries and museums and is included in major private and public collections.