Wendy Edwards

Wendy Edwards (born 1950) is an American artist known for vibrant, tactile paintings rooted in organic forms and landscape, which have ranged from representation and figuration to free-form abstraction. Her work has been strongly influenced by the 1970s Pattern and Decoration movement and its embrace of ornamentation, repetition, edge-to-edge composition, sensuality and a feminist vision grounded in women's life experience. Critics note in Edwards's paintings an emphasis on surfaces and the materiality of paint, a rhythmic use of linear or geometric elements, and an intuitive orientation toward action, response and immediacy rather than premeditation. In a 2020 review, Boston Globe critic Cate McQuaid wrote, "Edwards's pieces are exuberant, edgy, and thoughtful ... [her] sweet, tart colors and delicious textures make the senses a gateway into larger notions about women and men, creation and mortality."

Edwards has exhibited at venues including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Center for the Arts, China National Academy of Painting, and Soviet Hall of Art. Her work belongs to the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD), San Antonio Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Bowdoin College Museum of Art and Karamay Museum (China), among others. She lives and works in Rhode Island with her husband, painter-sculptor Jerry Mischak.