January 4 - 26, 2025
From Wally Workman Gallery:
“On January 4th, Wally Workman Gallery opens Prints by Ellen Heck. In this exhibition, both figurative and abstract works explore a panorama of perspectives. Life-size monochromatic aquatint portraits of children in the process of having their faces painted hone in on varying expressions of almost religious deliverance at known and unknown hands holding tools of transformation. In this series of varied editions, Being Painted, each child’s face is individually painted in different familiar motifs. Of these, the show features masked adventurers, clowns, and starry-eyed dreamers. Heck is interested in the variety of expressions and levels of self-consciousness of children being painted, and conversely, the focus and lack of self-consciousness of children who are painting themselves.
Another on-going series included in the exhibition are Heck’s large abstract works from the Color Wheels series. Multiple panels from a single origin accumulate to resemble kaleidoscopic landscapes, each one repeatedly referencing an image that no longer exists in its original form. The resultant composite piece explores self-similarity and collective growth.
In concurrence with Print Austin, the show as a whole uses the repetition and variation of printmaking to tell stories of transformation.
Ellen Heck has received degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Brown University. Her work is in the collections of the MFA Boston, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Stanford University and others. She works as a printmaker and painter in North Carolina.
Send inquiries to Rachel H. Stephens at [email protected] or call 512.472.7428″
On View: January 4, 2025 | 12–5 pm
1202 West 6th Street
Austin, 78703 TX
(512) 472-7428
Get directions