Whitney Bedford: Nocturnes
September 11, 2026 – November 14, 2026
SECRIST | BEACH, 1801 W. Hubbard Street, Chicago IL 60622
While this is the gallery’s third exhibition with the artist, Nocturnes presents the first exhibition of the newest iteration of Bedford’s acclaimed Veduta series, which has been ongoing since 2019. These moonscapes mark a natural progression from her previous body of work which featured sunsets, some of which were created in the aftermath of the devastating 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. In this transition from day to night, Bedford introduces a new chromatic register, transforming the atmospheric qualities of the Veduta series from muted luminosity to the heightened ambiguity of moonlit landscapes. The resulting works constitute a subtle yet striking evolution of the artist’s ongoing engagement with light, atmosphere and the moods they evoke. Veduta paintings are a genre of painting made popular throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. Originally, these highly detailed depictions of recognizable European vistas: significantly, this genre also captured imagery of healthy and pristine vistas untouched by development, pollution and other man-made blight.