Nancy Youdelman

The work of Nancy Youdelman is very much about memories and the associations we have with them.  Using old photos and images of dresses and shoes, she is able to evoke memories shared by all.  There is something enticingly personal and intimate in Youdelman’s work.  It was not surprising to learn that she had studied with Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro at CalArts where women were encouraged to find their own identities and expressive language.  Youdelman had many memories of her mother sewing and enjoyed playing with the jars of buttons.  Using nontraditional materials, Youdelman is able to conjure up works that magnify the experience of remembrance that can be triggered by an article of clothing.
   Gail Levin, art historian and Judy Chicago biographer said of the work, Youdelman’s pieces have many layers of meaning. Perhaps originally affected by the reading group assigned as part of the Feminist Art Program, she is constantly looking to literature for inspiration: from Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past” to Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, where associations lurk “in every fold.”