Press Release | Athen B. Gallery is delighted to open our fall season with the solo exhibition "Conversations and Color" by Heather Day on October 6 at 160 Spear Street in San Francisco. Join us for the opening from 6-10pm. The exhibition features new mixed media paintings on canvas that convey a year of travel and research into the relationships between color, line, texture and conversation. Photographs by Margaret Austin.
Artist Statement by Heather Day | I travel seeking stories of all kinds—stories behind people, places, sound, and nature—and bring them home to my San Francisco studio to create an interpretation. From collecting moments in wooded areas or near agitated rivers, travel is research and painting is the reaction. It lets me go deeper through combining the images and emotions I accumulate from the road; it’s the reflectionary period where all elements of an experience come together.
My recent work tells the story of a year looking, feeling and listening to the connections between conversations and color. Conversations represent interaction and exchanges—not only between people themselves, but also between nature and human. Observing the rhythm of a tide and the rhythm of a city—it all breaks down into line, texture and hue. Conversations are merely reactions to this rhythm. Whether we’re talking to a friend, interacting with nature or are left stewing in our own thoughts, conversations permeate life. They become ideas and memories that evolve and eventually dissolve.
At the center of all is color. It’s raw emotion, movement and response. It’s the means to control energy and direct the eye. Color parallels the same energy and motion I see in life, which dictates the act of painting. The process requires the fluidity and strength found in nature—from short, abrupt marks to great surging washes of paint. It demands the entire body, not just the hand. With each piece, I’m in a new place. And the more I paint, the more I want to keep searching.
Bio | Heather Day was born in 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2012, she graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with her BFA. Her work is included in both national and international collections, including Facebook Inc., Warner Brothers Inc., The Ritz-Carlton and Snapchat Inc. This is her fifth solo show and first with Athen B. Gallery.
