Hollis Heichemer

Born in Binghamton, New York, Hollis Heichemer (b. 1963) lives and works in New Hampshire. Contemplative and intuitive, Heichemer’s paintings distill her personal experiences of nature and the environs surrounding her home and studio in New Hampshire. Her canvases luxuriate in rich gradations of greens and blues that shift from dark intensity to light-filled translucency, and her spontaneous gestural approach infuses the works with a sense of motion, suggesting the colors are active beneath the surface plane. This sense of depth invites the viewer to step into, or travel within, the painting, as though there is an open path of color, light, and emotional evocations one can follow.

Heichemer tirelessly explores the possibilities of poetic abstraction. Her paintings “conjure up a felt sense of mystery itself,” giving visual form to revelations that can only be sensed or felt, rather than seen or known. While the artist is often compelled by nature, she draws on her experiences over time, allowing her works to develop fluidly and organically—in some instances, days and in other instances, months. In this way, her works become capsules of an array of moments in and outside of the studio. John Howell has described the artist’s process: “Heichemer has no particular shapes or forms in mind, no preset of a format to direct the flow into a preconceived pattern. Each gesture informs the next move. The guiding principle is the motion itself. . . She works on several paintings at a time. Because she moves from one to another according to her intuition, paintings created at a certain time will inter-relate.”

Hollis Heichemer received her MA at Seton Hall University and BS at Ohio University. Her work has been exhibited at Hollis Taggart, New York; Ballinglen Museum of Art, Ballycastle, Ireland; Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco; Sugarlift, New York; among others. She joined Hollis Taggart’s program in April 2020.