Installation photo credit: San Luis Obispo Museum of Art

On view at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, Whitney Bedford’s exhibition “The Window” through February 15, 2025.

“The Window intricately bridges the natural, the historical, and the imagined. Veduta — a term often referenced in Bedford’s practice is Italian for view— is often used in art history for large-scale and site-specific landscapes. Painters have been celebrating their most beloved vistas accordingly for hundreds of years. Each artwork acts as a portal, depicting contrasting times, emotional states, and climate realities. Utilizing vividly bright neon colors, and uniquely Californian plant life, Bedford’s process is one of meticulous detail — allowing the works to become three dimensional the longer you look.  

Almost all the works included in this exhibition directly reference iconic landscape painters of the past 300 years. These nods to past masters infuse her contemporary vision with layers of meaning, building on the contexts of the original works and overlaying them with the present moment. There is an invitation for sincere reflection in these works — particularly on the climate realities of our earth, how much has changed, and how we collectively respond now. With these rich thematic throughlines, The Window ultimately invites viewers to reflect on their own perceptions of place and the landscapes that shape our memories and daily lives.”

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 Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; 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 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; 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.