Exhibition

Edna Andrade: Space Dreams

February 2nd – March 9th, 2024

Locks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings and paintings from the 1970s by Edna Andrade (1917–2008). As part of (re)Focus 2024, Andrade’s will be the first of three shows at the gallery featuring women artists in Philadelphia, followed by solo exhibitions of Sarah McEneaney opening in March 2024 and Dona Nelson in April 2024.

50 years ago in May 1974, Edna Andrade wrote in an artist statement for her second solo show at Marian Locks Gallery: “I find myself in the ancient tradition of all of those anonymous artisans who have painted pottery and tiles, laid mosaic pavings, woven baskets and carpets, embroidered vestments and sewn quilts.” In this quote, Andrade evokes a process of art making that is divested of ego – a rejection of the ‘art star’ norm which at the time was dominated by white men – emphasizing instead her connection to the innumerable makers of history, many of whom were women, who have produced the multifarious wares and objects that comprise the vast visual cultures of our global humanity.

That same year, she was also included in the survey exhibition titled Women’s Work, American Art 1974 at the Philadelphia Civic Center, which connected her to the larger feminist movement of the time. Referring to her process and use of the grid in her drawings and paintings, Andrade said, “It’s the kind of thing women have always done – like knitting. Something you can pick up where you have the time, drop it when you get busy with something else, and come back to exactly where you left off.” (The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, April 2, 1989)

This exhibition will include a selection of Andrade’s grid-based works from the mid to late 1970s which feature intimate color and pattern studies connecting a modernist love of the grid to the aforementioned ‘ancient traditions’ honored in her work.