Daniel Heidkamp “Boston to Brooklyn”

Half Gallery

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Half Gallery presents a dozen new oil paintings depicting Daniel Heidkamp’s recent travels from Boston to Brooklyn. The paintings shown here are part of a larger dialogue which will be presented concurrently in the group exhibition Talking Pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In Talking Pictures, the museum invited 12 pairs of artists to create a visual correspondence over the course of six months. Heidkamp teamed up with White Columns alum Cynthia Daignault, documenting their individual forays up and down the Eastern seaboard (Daignault hailing from Baltimore, Heidkamp a Massachusetts native). The artists used a private online folder to upload paintings they made during their road trips.

Heidkamp’s journey begins in Copley Square, a Boston landmark named for the renowned American painter John Singleton Copley. His exploration took him to the rugged coastline of Cape Ann made famous by the paintings of Edward Hopper, and then later on to the rural New York area that is home to the Hudson River School as captured in Heidkamp’s painting Pink Olana. At times Heidkamp’s subject matter becomes more personal. In Hawk Watcher, Daniel portrays a visit to his familial home where his father examines a massive hawk perched in their front yard. In this painting the monochromatic palette creates the feeling of a memory painted in real time.

As the exhibition title suggests, his travels conclude at home in Brooklyn. Whether painting the view of two ferries crossing at dusk from his studio window or taking walks under faint New York City starlight - he is seeking new vantage points amidst familiar surroundings. By painting in his adopted domain, Heidkamp considers how the definition of ‘home’ shifts throughout life, and how personal histories intersect with cultural touchstones that we inherit collectively.

While the entirety of Heidkamp’s contribution to Talking Pictures encompasses some thirty paintings - full documentation of which can be seen at The Met until December 2017 - Half Gallery is pleased to share a dozen works by Daniel Heidkamp in Boston to Brooklyn.

Daniel Heidkamp (b. 1980) graduated from The Museum School in Boston and currently resides in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.