Willy Heeks | Contours of Instinct and Nuance

September 7 - 30, 2023

Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present Contours of Instinct and Nuance, new paintings by the nationally acclaimed Willy Heeks. This body of work features new variations on the colorful and expressive painting Heeks is known for.

After taking a pause from painting throughout the pandemic, Heeks has returned to the canvas with a fresh vulnerability permeating his work. The visual complexities of these pieces allude to the intrinsically cerebral framework from which the paintings were born and reflect the emotional release encouraged by his improvisational freedom. Heeks’ sweeping brushwork and graffiti-like approach is still very present, while many of the paintings are balanced with fractal details and sharp lines. The harmony of the work remains intact while these intriguing new additions push the boundaries of Heeks’ methodology. The new geometrical elements serve as the artist’s latest tool by which to explore the canvas, an excitingly fresh extension of Heeks’ ability to draw viewers in with his atmospheric composition and fierce complexity.

Willy Heeks, born in 1951, has gained a national reputation, exhibiting in New York, Los Angeles, and throughout the United States. He received his BFA from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston in 1973, attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program that same year and in 1977 he received his MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. His work has been acquired by the Peabody-in-Essex Museum (Salem, MA), Museum of Contemporary Art, (Detroit, MI), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH). His work is also in the collections of the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, NY), Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA).