• HEATHER GUERTIN: sense and sensidility
  • February 15 - March 15, 2008
  • Opening Reception: February 15 (7-10PM)

  • 65GRAND is pleased to announce Heather Guertin's first solo exhibition: Sense and Sensidility. That is no typo, the absurdist title is emblematic of Guertin's interest in finding a readymade, cultural source, and slightly altering it. Whether it is for a humorous effect, or to give one serious pause, this approach is a major part of the body of work presented in this exhibition.

  • The paintings here start not from the blank canvas but from readymade fabric sources. In a sense, certain decisions have been made for the artist before the work even begins. It is a back and forth. This group of paintings stem from an interest in the androgynous and timeless quality of men's fashion. While every season in women's clothing must be revamped, men's fashion is more static. Guertin selects bolts of fabric that she is instinctively drawn to and uses those as ground for a painting. "Although the fabrics suggest to me what actions to take, those actions contradict the logic of the mass produced image." says Guertin "The work then becomes a negotiation between visual object and idea," once again illustrating the concept of the work of art revealing itself to the maker.

  • Heather Guertin is a second year MFA candidate at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2003 she graduated with honors from the University of Massachusetts. Previous exhibitions include Fifths at Swingr Art, Vienna, Austria and Preview Exhibition at Devening Projects, Chicago in 2007. Good and Thuggy, Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC in 2006 and Artists@DeCordova, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA in 2005. Guertin currently lives and works in Chicago.