Heather Guertin’s practice engages the relationship between observation and imaginative expression. Her paintings contain a diverse variety of mark making and reference a large collection of visual subject matter. She uses abstraction in her work as a passageway to better understand form. Each translation from image to paint in the work is a subjective decision. Guertin’s gestural mark-making ties different fragments of imagery together and transforms it into a new whole. Through this process, the painting finds its own logic, making it difficult to locate the original source. This combination of observation and invention results in a tension between illusionistic space and the flatness of pure color. Through her painterly approach, she achieves an autonomous physicality, rendering the works into psychological and imaginative paintings.

Heather Guertin (b. 1981, Worcester, MA) lives and works in Red Hook, NY. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Guertin has recently exhibited at JDJ the Ice House, Garrison, NY, Broadway Gallery, New York, Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, presented with Galería Agustina Ferreyra, Brennan & Griffin, New York, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Flag Art Foundation, New York, Bortolami, New York, and Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Guertin has performed at White Columns, New York and the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, PA. Her work was acquired by the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection earlier this year. Guertin’s novella with Social Malpractice and Publication Studio was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp in 2013, and her monograph was published by Hassla Books in 2015.