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. 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 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. 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. Guertin’s recent exhibitions include a two person exhibition at Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, and group exhibitions include Grouper, Broadway; How to Call the Spirits, Chapter; East Side to the West Side, Flag Art Foundation; and Addicted to Highs and Lows, Bortolami. In 2015 a monograph of her works was published by Hassla Books.
[excerpted from JDJ website: www.jdj.world]