Throughout his 70-year career, Dudley has challenged artistic conventions and the traditional concept of painting by incorporating industrial materials into his work, such as aluminum, lacquer, Homasote and plywood.

Don Dudley was born in 1930 in Los Angeles, CA, and lives in New York City and Kerhonkson, NY. His work is a historical link between California’s “Cool School” of the late '50s/early '60s and the “Finish Fetish” generation of the late '60s, as well as hard-edged Minimalists like Frank Stella, Brice Marden and Ellsworth Kelly. Dudley lived on the West Coast for thirty-eight years before relocating to New York City in 1969, where he still lives and works. The analytical, artistic approaches—particularly the visual language of grids and modularity—and industrial aesthetics favored in New York City profoundly impacted Dudley's work, pushing it away from the luscious style of his California years. His practice embraces drawing and painting by way of sculpture and installation to create subtle, sophisticated wall works of both elegance and formal intelligence.

After a twenty-five-year hiatus from exhibiting, Dudley was rediscovered in 2011. Since then, he has mounted solo exhibitions at Magenta Plains in New York City, NY (2022, 2019, 2017); Galerie Thomas Zander in Cologne, Germany (2018, 2013); I-20 Gallery in New York City, NY (2011); and Mendes Wood in São Paulo, Brazil (2011).

He has participated in select group exhibitions at major institutions such as Activated Walls at the Queens Museum of Art in New York City, NY (1984); Double Take at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, NY (1978); and Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, NY (1972).