Known for her luminous application of color, Heisch composes paintings of repeated motifs, curving forms, and delicate, gestural lines. Drawing inspiration from organic bodies, patterns in nature, and the cosmos, Heisch’s paintings are infused with waves of energy and tension, capturing triumphant yet fleeting moments of balance and stillness.
Heisch paints carefully in multi-layered applications of oil on canvas to achieve the desired atmospheric qualities and emotional tenor of the final work. Each painting is characterized by a sense of movement, a fluidity reflected in the opposing properties that coexist on the canvas – hard and soft, light and dark, flatness and depth. Such oppositional symmetry is at the heart of the artist’s practice and infuses her paintings with an embodied inquisitive gaze, directly inviting the viewer to engage and explore open-ended states of possibility and meaning.
The artist's recent solo exhibition As above, so below at GRIMM New York is accompanied by a publication with an essay by Cassie Packard, available to order. Heisch also had a major solo museum exhibition at the K11 Art Museum, Shanghai (CN) from November 2023 to March 2024.
Angela Heisch (b. 1989, Auckland, NZ) lives and works in Dutchess County, NY (US). She received a BA Fine Arts from University at Potsdam, SUNY, NY (US) in 2011, and an MFA from University at Albany, SUNY, NY (US) in 2014.
Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include As above, so below, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); Low Speed Highs, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (UK); Gilded Slides, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Burgeon and Remain, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (UK), 2021; Figures, Faces, Places, Davidson Gallery, New York, NY (US), 2020; Springs, Projet Pangée, Montréal (CA), 2020; and Trapeze, Transmitter Gallery, New York, NY (US). Group presentations include Picnic at Hanging Rock, Chapter II, Sargent’s Daughters, Los Angeles, CA (US), 2024; Fruit and Fruition, curated by Angela Heisch, GRIMM, New York, NY (US), 2024; Wild, curated by Kathy Huang, Metropolitan Museum of Manila (PH), 2024; I Do My Own Stunts, Spazio Amanita, Los Angeles, CA (US), 2022; and Present Generations, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (US), 2022.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (LB); AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); Center of International Contemporary Art, Vancouver (CA); Columbus Museum of Art, OH (US); Fundación Medianoche0, Granada (ES); Huamao Museum of Art Education, Ningbo (CN); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (US); K11 Museum, Shanghai (CN); Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte (BR); New Orleans Museum of Art, LA (US); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (IL); Pond Society, Shanghai (CN); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL); The Whitworth, Manchester (UK); and the University of Warwick Art Collection (UK).