NYAB Event - Hollis Heichemer “The Space Between the Trees”

Hollis Heichemer “The Space Between the Trees”

J. Cacciola Gallery

This event has ended.

J. Cacciola Gallery presents The Space Between the Trees, an exhibition featuring new paintings by Hollis Heichemer. This is the artist’s first solo show with J. Cacciola Gallery.

“This series of dark paintings is an investigation into the edge of where reality and imagination are blurred, where tragedy and beauty are interconnected. I find an expression of this blurred line can be explored through an association with the time of day when night is falling, when the sudden darkness is at once confusing and threatening. Through painting, I am creating a space where one senses, experiences something which then alters our relationship within that moment.

“The colors of my paintings are drawn from my relationship with the outside world which I then connect to a bigger picture, to a series of reactions-responses that begin once the colors are on the canvas. I am drawn to painting dark colors in order to go into a deep space, colors I can look into and want to look into because they invite me with hints of finding something in the darkness. My paintings are the experience of this unknown space.

“This edge of darkness gives both a sense of beauty and tragedy. Shadows, when we see them, can take on forms and suggest objects. Only later do we realize that those forms/objects are put together in our minds. The shapes in my paintings come from reflections, light, shadows, times of day-all those occasions that are overwhelming because of the way light appears. It’s the idea of the shape that attracts me, not the exact form or perfect representation of a form.

“All these experiences and the beauty and the tragedy of them drive my need to paint. Painting, because it creates space through color and form-a space to explore this beauty and tragedy. I am looking to connect with the experience of feeling that it all looks familiar, yet not knowing what that “familiar” is. A time that is not all clear, that has elements of what is known and what is felt but not known. These recent dark paintings are explorations of that edge.” says Hollis Heichemer about the body of work.

Hollis Heichemer received her MFA from Seton Hall in 1991. She has been awarded residencies at The Artist In Rural Ireland Foundation, in Ballycastle, Co Mayo Ireland and the International Academy, Dolomite Academy, Toblach - Dobbiaco, Italy, amongst others. The artist has participated in group exhibitions nationwide and internationally.

[Image: Hollis Heichemer “Glimpsed Shadow” (2013) oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.]