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Heather Guertin

Heather Guertin's artistic practice is grounded in observation, and the sensibility that a deeply imaginative expression lies latent within it.  

The genesis for Guertin’s newest body of oil paintings begins as a series of collages she creates from the pages of scientific journals, discarded books and magazines. Guertin uses these collages as a guide, translating the colors, textures, and forms from these found images into a pictorial language that she combines to ecstatic and exuberant effect.

Heather Guertin, Installation view, JDJ, Garrison, NY, 2021

Heather Guertin
not yet titled, 2021
Oil on canvas
28 x 24 inches

Heather Guertin
not yet titled, 2021
Oil on canvas
28 x 24 inches

Heather Guertin
not yet titled, 2021
Oil on canvas
28 x 24 inches

Heather Guertin
not yet titled, 2021
Oil on canvas
28 x 24 inches

Heather Guertin, Installation view, JDJ, Garrison, NY, 2021

Her mark-making throughout the paintings, and sometimes within one painting itself, can take many forms: a kind of textured pointillism, with dabs of paint physically protruding from the surface; broad-brushed continuous strokes of thickly applied, opaque oil paint that which create a sense of flatness; Squiggly zig-zags that feel almost like glitches on a digital screen. Her paintings are a riot of color, form and texture, and their compositions depict energetic shifts in tension, space, frequency and rhythm, much like the Orphist works of Sonia Delaunay, whose paintings were a reference point for Guertin.

Heather Guertin
not yet titles, 2021
Oil on canvas
36 x 30 inches

Heather Guertin, Installation view, JDJ, Garrison, NY, 2021

Heather Guertin
Windows, 2021
Oil on canvas
18 x 15in

Heather Guertin
Breather, 2020
Oil on canvas
18 x 15 inches

Heather Guertin
Three Women, 2021
Oil on canvas
18 x 15 inches

Although Guertin’s paintings are abstractions, her compositions often convey a sense of recognizability—though not necessarily to their source imagery. Some compositions feel biomorphic, and others architectural. One may resemble the passing lights of cars on a freeway at dusk, and another looks like the marquee of an old theater aglow in lights. What we think we see within the paintings is a creation of our mind’s eye.

Heather Guertin, Installation view, JDJ, Garrison, NY, 2021

Heather Guertin
Wires, 2020
Oil on canvas
18 x 15 inches

Heather Guertin
Steps, 2020
Oil on canvas
18 x 15 inches

Heather Guertin
Sonia, 2021
Oil on canvas
18 x 15in

Heather Guertin
Wash, 2020
Oil on Canvas
14 x 12 inches

Heather Guertin
Luzzus, 2020
Oil on Canvas
14 x 12 inches

Heather Guertin
Atlas, 2020
Oil on Canvas
14 x 12 inches

Heather Guertin b. 1981, Worcester, Massachusetts, lives and works in upstate New York. She received her Master of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include a two person exhibition at Kurimanzutto, Mexico City and a solo exhibition at JDJ Ice House in Garrison, NY, Two Thousand Eighteen, Brennan & Griffin, NY, Aluminum Linoleum, Proyectos Monclova, MX and The Whole, Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Group exhibitions include Grouper, Broadway, NY, How to Call the Spirits, Chapter, NY, East Side to the West Side, Flag Art Foundation, NY, and Addicted to Highs and Lows, Bortolami, NY. She has performed in locations such as White Columns in New York and in participation with the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2013, Guertin published a novella titled Model Turned Comedian with Social Malpractice and Publication Studio, which was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp. In 2015 a monograph of her works was published by Hassla Books.

Heather Guertin press release

Heather Guertin checklist

Heather Guertin CV