Philadelphia, PN
The amount of breath, air, light and energy contained in three abstract oil paintings by Rebecca Ledbetter is wondrous. Smooth from being done on sheets of paper, and cleverly framed with space between the compositions and their chunky wood frames, they are modest in size and enormous in effect. Imagine taking part of the background out of a pastel Lisa Yuskavage and you might be able to picture the shimmery, lush ephemerality of “The World Is Too Quiet.” Picture cutting a section from an early Philip Guston and you’ll get something like the lively chaos of “This Dream Within a Dream.” Put them both together, then take half of the arrangement out, and voila, from those depths emerges “A Deeply Hidden and Inarticulate Desire.” Oh, and turn that one sideways, because you can.
—Lori Waxman 10/15/2023 5:26 PM