Harminder Judge
Overview
Harminder Judge b.1982 Rotherham, UK/ Lives and works in London, UK. He graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London in 2021.
Imbued with an indelible vibrancy and depth, Harminder Judge makes transportive sculptural works that simultaneously reference Indian neo-tantric painting, as well as the abstract expressionist and colourfield movements of the 20th century. His alchemical process involves layering pigments into pools of wet plaster followed by prolonged periods of excavation; sanding, polishing and oiling. Culminating in expansive modular panels, and ineffable shapes which seem to hover off the wall, colour, forms, and compositions are allowed to reveal themselves and intensify over time.
This all results in a gleaming, vibrating surface where monolithic forms, seething horizons, and emanations of colour rise up from the solid granite-like depth beneath. The interplay between the granular and cosmic playout here and there is a real sense of a material phenomenon taking place, the remnants of which appear both crystallised and in a state of flux. The works as such exist in the present moment; Harminder has referred to them not as paintings but portals that offer us a wide plane to look through, allowing for broader contemplation to take place.
Over the last few years Harminder’s titles often serve as reference points to a pivotal and formative moment in his teenage years. Arriving in Amritsar, Punjab at the age of 15, Harminder made the journey to his family’s village in Attowal where he took part in the funeral rites of his Grandfather who had recently passed away. This involved intimate rituals such as undressing and washing the body, preparing the cremation pyre on the family sugarcane farm, tending the burning pyre throughout the night under a blanket of stars, and collecting his Grandfather’s ashes, bone fragments and jewellery in the hazy morning sun. This physical and spiritual transformation of body becoming ash, of material becoming immaterial, physical becoming metaphysical, are concepts that tacitly underpin his practice.
Exhibitions
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Donna Huanca, Harminder Judge, Hermann Nitsch
Embodied Rituals 21 May - 20 Jun 2025Under the title Embodied Rituals , Galerie Kandlhofer brings together three artistic positions that stand out in the international art world through their interweaving of performance, painting, installation and sculpture. Donna Huanca (b. 1980, Chicago), Harminder Judge (b. 1982, Rotherham), and Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938 - d. 2022, Austria) have...Read more -
Curated By
GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock 8 Sep - 14 Oct 2023Galerie Kandlhofer invited Sacha Craddock to curate an exhibition for this year’s edition of Curated By. The exhibition will show works by Tereza Červeňová, Harminder Judge, Andreas Reiter Raabe and Jessica Warboys. It is impossible to be neutral in politics and yet neutrality, the theme of this years Curated by,...Read more
Works
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Harminder JudgeUntitled, 2025Plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 200 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled , 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 203 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 79 7/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled, 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 203 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 79 7/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled, 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 203 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 79 7/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (branch caught on stomachs edge), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 203 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 79 7/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (closed eye and eyes closed), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil75 x 46 x 4 cm
29 1/2 x 18 1/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (leg over arm and ground bending), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil342 x 235 x 4 cm
134 5/8 x 92 1/2 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (open eye and eyes open), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil76 x 52 x 4 cm
29 7/8 x 20 1/2 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (orchid, chest), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 203 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 79 7/8 x 1 5/8 in -
Harminder JudgeUntitled (soil cursed and lit and burst), 2023plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil200 x 200 x 4 cm
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 x 1 5/8 in
Installation shots
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Installation View: GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock, 2023
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Installation View: GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock, 2023
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Installation View: GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock, 2023
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Installation View: GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock , 2023
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Installation View: GLOSSARY - curated by Sacha Craddock, 2023
Publications