Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to present Nevertheless…, an online exhibition of new drawings by artist Whitney Bedford.

In February 2017, the US Senate, led by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell voted along party lines to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren as she voiced her objections during the confirmation hearing for Senator Jeff Sessions, who had recently been appointed US Attorney General. As part of her extensive and powerful dissent, Warren read aloud from a letter authored by Coretta Scott King in 1986, when Sessions was a candidate for a Federal judgeship in Alabama, that argues he is unfit to hold that position. Stating unequivocally: “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”* Describing his decision to censor Senator Warren, Senator McConnell stated “Senator Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted“** Sessions was of course confirmed and served, disastrously, as US Attorney General from February 8, 2017 – November 7, 2018. “Nevertheless, she persisted…” has become a rallying cry for feminists. A statement intended to slander has been transformed into a representation of the power of the capable, profound, and persistent efforts of women resisting oppression in all its forms to reimagine and rebuild our world.

Inspired by Senator Warren’s bid for the Presidency, Bedford initiated a series of daily drawings of the Senator on February 26, 2020. These initial 10″ x 14″ drawings of Warren, made from widely available photographs of the candidate, were sold on Instagram to raise money in support of Warren’s campaign. When Warren dropped out of the race on March 5, Bedford expanded her project, creating a series of portraits of women political figures, artists, writers, musicians, thinkers, who have persisted despite the challenges of a patriarchal and white supremacist society to forge new paths and fight for freedom, equity, and access for all.

Best known for her landscapes and shipwreck paintings, Bedford’s practice is built on a foundation of drawing. In her work, the descriptive power of the drawn line is often used as an architectural support against which she plays the emotive, evocative power of painterly gesture to create psychological portraits, describe ineffable emotional experiences, or to create an image of something needed. In her most recent show at Vielmetter, Reflections on the Anthropocene, Bedford used the frank immediacy of drawing to describe the present reality of a changing climate confronting the recent, and much more verdant past. Periodically throughout her career, Bedford has made portraits of powerful women including the so-called Iron Ladies of Champagne and Annie Oakley as well as of compelling male figures, Nikolai Tesla and Harry Houdini. Her portraits of women are always described as “icons of strength” — containers for the very necessary inspiration to be tenacious, persevering, pioneering, and always generously holding the door open for the next generation of women.

Throughout the four months of the COVID-19 lockdown in Los Angeles, Bedford has continued to make daily drawings of women. Each drawing is coupled with an investigation of the subject’s work and impact, summarized in a brief caption. Since March 5, the donations made in exchange for the 10″ x 14″ Instagram drawings have been donated to Emily’s List – a fundraising PAC that supports pro-choice, Democratic, women candidates. In recent weeks, she has made a series of larger drawings for this presentation – each 22″ x 30″ – that explore her subjects with greater detail. 20% of the retail price of each drawing sold from this series of drawings will also be donated to Emily’s List.

Bedford received her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003. She was the winner of the 2001 UCLA Hammer Museum Drawing Biennale and received a Fulbright Graduate Fellowship from Hochschule der Kuenste, Berlin in 1999. She has had solo exhibitions at Art:Concept, Paris, France; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL; D’Amelio Terras Gallery, New York; and Starkwhite, Auckland, New Zealand. She has been included in group exhibitions at the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; the Jewish Museum, New York; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. Bedford’s work is included in the Jumex Collection, Mexico City, Mexico; the De La Cruz Collection, Miami, Florida, USA; The Saatchi Collection, London, England; the Francois Pinault Collection, Paris, France; the Eric Decelle Collection, Brussels, Belgium; and the Collection Ginette Moulin/Guillaume Houze, Paris, France. Bedford is a painting instructor at both Chapman University and the University of California, Riverside.

* “Congressional Record — Senate“. Congress.gov. February 7, 2017. p. S853.
** “Congressional Record — Senate“. Congress.gov. February 7, 2017. p. S855.