Mary Heilmann, Tomorrow's Parties, 1979/1994, Acrylic on canvas, 48 1/4 x 72-1/4 x 2-1/2" (diptych), Hauser & Wirth Collection, Switzerland. Courtesy the artist, 303 Gallery New York, and Hauser & Wirth Zurich

Mary Heilmann, Surfing on Acid, 2005. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 122 cm). Collection Orange County Museum of Art; museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Lois Outerbridge Courtesy the Artist, 303 Gallery New York, and Hauser and Wirth, London and Zurich.

Mary Heilmann, Gordy’s Cut, 2003. Oil on canvas, 42 x 36", Collection Carol and David Appel, Toronto. Courtesy the artist, 303 Gallery New York, and Hauser & Wirth Zurich and London.

Contemporary Arts Museum
5216 Montrose Boulevard
Houston
713-284-8250
Mary Heilmann:
To Be Someone
November 3, 2007-
January 6, 2008

Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone is the first retrospective for this influential New York-based painter. The exhibition includes 75 works from 1972 to the present, along with key earlier works, and will also examine Heilmann's interest in ceramics, decorative arts, film, and music. The retrospective will highlight her development of a deceptively simple, even offhand, approach to painting that has become a hallmark of contemporary abstraction.

One of the few female abstract painters of her generation, Heilmann was born in San Francisco in 1940. She received a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1962 and a MA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967. Her solo museum exhibitions include Mary Heilmann: A Survey at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1990). Her works are included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Heilmann’s work has been deeply influenced by her personal experiences, including a childhood and adolescence moving from Los Angeles-area beaches to Bay Area beatnik clubs. The impact of this thoroughly West Coast childhood is seen in the vibrant, lusty color palette, sense of boundless possibility, and experimentation for which Heilmann’s paintings are known. The sense of movement and rhythm evident in the work — as well as many of the paintings’ titles — are connected to Heilmann’s enthusiasm for popular music ranging from Brian Eno to the Sex Pistols, to k.d. lang, and beyond. Her free abstractions combined with an element of autobiography, has made Heilmann’s paintings highly influential to a younger generation of artists. Ultimately, Heilmann’s practice can be seen as an all-encompassing network linking genres, styles, friends, locations, and histories—enabling each individual work to speak eloquently on its own terms as well as in a larger chorus.

Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone is organized by the Orange County Museum of Art and curated by Elizabeth Armstrong, deputy director for programs and chief curator. A major catalogue with texts by Elizabeth Armstrong, Johanna Burton, Dave Hickey, and Al Ruppersberg will accompany the exhibition.

Mary Heilmann was born in 1940 in San Francisco, She lives and works in New York.

Solo exhibitions include; 1970, Whitney Museum Art Resource Center, New York City; 1971, Paley & Lowe Gallery, New York, 1974, Gallery, State University of New York at Stony Brook; 1976, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York; 1978, Galerie Wallner Fersens, Malmö, Schweden; Holly Solomon Gallery, New York; 1979, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York; Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco; 1980, Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf; 1981, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York; 1983, The Clocktower, New York; Daniel Weinberg, San Francisco; 1986, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York; 1988, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York; Galerie Mukai, Tokio; 1989, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York City; 1990, Galerie Isabella Kacprzak, Köln (with Jessica Stockholder); Robbin Lockett Gallery, Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Fuller Gross Gallery, San Francisco; 1991, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York City; 1993, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York City; 1994, m Bochum Kunstvermittlung, Bochum; San Francisco Art Institute; 1997, Stiftung für konstruktive und konkrete Kunst, Zürich; Galerie Haus & Wirth, Zürich, Katalog; 1998, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York City; 1999, Mary Heilmann, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zürich: 2000, Mary Heilmann. Malerei, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Katalog; 2001, Camden Arts Center, London; 2002, American Arts Center, New York; 2003, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Seccession Wien.

Mary Heilmann, Little Three for Two: Red, Yellow, Blue, 1976, Acrylic on canvas, 13 1/2 x 24, Collection the artist, Courtesy the artist, 303 Gallery New York, and Hauser and Wirth, London and Zurich.