Judy Chappus: Skin in the Game

Judy Chappus is a Windsor-based artist and poet who is uncompromising in her artistic searching. This survey exhibition, ranging from Chappus’ student years to the present, captures a restless artist in the midst and aftermaths of many reckonings: with motherhood, shifting critical fortunes, aging, and climate change; others, too many to name. Animating all works on view is Chappus’ courage, a vital throughline connecting Chappus’ student work at the University of Windsor and the University of California at Irvine, through her return to Windsor, to the present.

Chappus’ expansive, multimedia works reflect the artist’s Catholic upbringing, her exposure to feminist performance, and her longstanding interest in figuration and representation. More recently, installations and paintings address ecological issues, bringing together concerns around the Anthropocene and the histories of the places where Chappus lives and works. This includes Salt Spring Island, where Chappus was based for much of the pandemic and where she returns annually, and the Windsor region, where the Chappus family has resided since 1826. Collectively, the exhibition speaks to an artist who is sincerely and ferociously grappling with the issues of her time, with an eye for the outlaw and the courage to face difficult subjects.

Skin in the Game is a tribute to the stakes of Chappus’ work, and the personal risks and vulnerabilities the artist takes and allows in its creation. A retrospective can be an invitation to make history of materials, to revisit old works, and to loom errant threads into a cohesive whole: to spread open the garden, and eat the juicy apples.