Heather Watts
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Biography
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With lanterns, torches, halos, hell-fire, sunsets and television sets, Heather Watts brings color and character to the grainy memory of our collective history. Unified by threads of humor, faith and fatalism, her work explores the bittersweet nature of life. Innocence, hope & truth square off against knowledge, despair and illusion through the pageantry of anthropomorphic villains and anti-heroes, all rendered with an eye to what they reveal about the realities of our own world.?
Watts is self-taught in the arts, but holds a Bachelors Degree in Asian Area Studies from the University of British Columbia. A bookish fascination with history, politics, art, science and religion exerts subtle influence in her art.
Since Watts began painting full-time in 2003, her work has surfaced in galleries from California to Florida, including M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs and Las Vegas, The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, Copro Nason in Santa Monica. DvA Gallery in Chicago, and Roq la Rue in Seattle.??Her first solo show, entitled The End is Near debuted at M Modern Gallery, Las Vegas, in May of 2007; all pieces sold.
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Statement
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Creating a painting is, for me, similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. I piece together images, words and colors, working on the faith that eventually the chaos in front of me will come to resemble the picture I have in my head.
What has always seemed strange to me is the fact that I do not actually create the puzzle pieces themselves. Like a collagist clipping pictures from old magazines, I go out into the world and cut these 'found ideas' from the pages of collective memory. My real work as an artist is to bring these ideas home and make them speak, arrange them in a way that communicates, through a single image, my own unique experience of that memory.
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Exhibitions
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Solo Shows:
The End is?Near?(Solo Show) - M Modern Gallery, Las Vegas - May 2007?
Group Shows:
Tiki Art Exhibition - De Cantine, Amsterdam - April 2007
Ladies Only - JEM Gallery, Vancouver, BC - March 2007
The Lucky Red Circus Show - Lucky Red Gallery, Vancouver, BC -September 2006?
Tiki Art Now III - Roq la Rue, Seattle, WA - September 2006
Motor City Tiki III -?The Cat's Meow, Detroit, MI - September 2006
Tribute to Dr. Seuss - M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, CA - August 2006
Lowbrow on the High Seas III - Mini Tart Gallery, Vancouver, BC - July 2006
Faux Fur Pas - JEM Gallery, Vancouver, BC - February 2006
Cosmic Cocktail - DC Gallery, Denver, CO - December 2005
New Tiny Tiki IV - New Tiny's, Vancouver, BC - December 2005
Little Pieces of Autumn - Anomaly Studios - Pasadena, CA, November 2005
Tiki Art Two - The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, CA - September 2005
Werewolf Bongo Party - DvA Gallery, Chicago, IL - October 2005
Gala Tiki?- DvA Gallery, Chicago, IL - June 2005
Lowbrow on the High Seas II - Mini Tart Gallery, Vancouver, BC - June 2005?
Ladies Room?- Vitale Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL - May 2005
Sneaky Tiki - M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, CA - May 2005
Modern Love II?- M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, CA - March 2005
The Sophisticated Savage - DC Gallery, Denver, CA - December 2004
New Tiny Tiki III - New Tiny's, Vancouver, BC - December 2004
Truck Stops & Trailer Parks - Mini Tart Gallery, Vancouver, BC - December 2004
The Pin-up Show - Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, WA - November 2004
Things with Wings - M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, CA - October 2004
Tiki Art Now - The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, CA - September 2004
Chin-Tiki - The Cat's Meow, Detroit, MI - July 2004?
Lowbrow on the High Seas - Mini Tart Gallery, Vancouver, BC - June 2004
New Tiny Tiki II - New Tiny's, Vancouver, BC - February 2004
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