Heather McGill

Light and California:

I was born in Bakersfield, California but grew up working in surf shops along the coast. I learned to fiberglass in my teens and in my thirties learned to use spray equipment to shoot lacquer and urethane paint. Light and California are an inseparable mythology, add optical illusions and surface and you have defined the key interests of my studio practice.

 

Personal lenses + Cultural mirrors:

My work has a lot of handcraft but also uses equal amounts of technology, both of which are buried or embedded into the final outcome. Growing up in California the first art movement that really inspired me were the Finish Fetish artists [Larry Bell, Judy Chicago, Joe Goode], artists who used car and surfboard culture as a lens as well as a mirror. [McGill got her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.] Their work is very high craft, but it’s that craft that buffs itself into invisibility. I hope the viewer understands that the crafting of the work is predicated on the artist’s skills and engagement with the process and that it acts as a personal lens as well as a cultural mirror.

 

Customizing:

Politically, I am a feminist. I was the head of a graduate sculpture program for over twenty years [at Michigan’s Cranbury Academy of Art—and an artist-in-residence at Dartmouth College and the Pilchuck Glass School]. My agenda was to teach from a platform of equality and criticality. I think education is extremely important and found it gave value to my life. I became interested in customizing when I moved to Detroit, but found few women present in the field historically or currently. Is the field of customizing closed to women or are we as a gender not interested? It is an intriguing and unanswered question.

 

Working to the edge:

I gravitate to artists that I would define as having idiosyncratic practices. Their work might be associated with a movement or time period, but primarily they work to the edge of it or could be considered fringe, even if they find economic success. Artists’ whose work reflects a uniquely personal worldview and is expressed in a formal language that is not commonly seen. 

 

Stencil + spray:

The use of pattern has been a long term and serious investigation for me as an artist. Pattern can be a method to move through a lot of content and experimentation both optically and culturally. In the 1990s I began experimenting with spraying intricate patterns on form, using the taping and stenciling methods used by customizers. I have continued to investigate the use of stencils and sprayed pigments for over twenty years.

 

Decorated:

Decoration is an agreed-upon system to organize and interpret our world. Unfortunately, it is often thought of as synonymous with anti-intellectualism.

But everything is decoration.

 

Referent points:

Most of the shapes in my work are derived from objects that were mass-produced and therefore have a real-world referent. Shapes that conjure in the viewer’s mind a familiarity or an association, but not quite the ability to pinpoint its origin. The shapes appear very “specific,” yet the specifics do not ever settle back onto the existing object. I want that sense of a “driven form” without identification.

 

Warp, weft, spray:

Because I use textiles as the basis for pattern, the grid is inherently present due to the weaving process. I use the grid system of the warp and weft as a system of structure upon which I can hang imagery, by spraying successive layers of pattern.

 

A loaded gun:

Experimenting with color is one of the aspects of making that I never plan. I love to load up the spray gun and see what happens.  Spraying is very different than using a brush. Both are prosthetics, but spraying allows for more immediate results as well as a seamless, mechanized look. I spray layers of colors to achieve the resulting effect. As for colors, well, I don’t have a favorite color.

 

Installations & Exhibitions

2022

Invisible Bloom, David Richard Gallery, New York, New York

 

2021

Proximity, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, California

 

2019

Alcoves 20/20, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Heather McGill: Beaded Jewels, Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

 

2018

The Common, David Richard Gallery, New York, New York, 2018

 

2017

99 Cents or Less, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, 2017

Familiar to Millions, Miller Yerzerski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2017

 

2016

ALTERED STATES: A PSYCHEDELIC LEGACY, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2016

Detroit Rotterdam Exchange Show, Cave Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 2016

Unnamed Need: Pattern and Beauty in Contemporary Art, Wriston Art Galleries, Lawrence University

Appleton, Wisconsin, 2016

 

2015

A Very Complete Opposite, Simone DeSousa Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 2015

Dear Things, Sweet Things, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 2015

 

2014

The Color of Everything that is Empty, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio, 2014

Spiral Galaxy, Miller Yerzerski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2014

 

2013

Night Moves, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, Vermont, 2013

Car Art/Crash, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan, 2013

Oblique Angle, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2013

Art X Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, 2013

 

2012

Heather McGill: One Person Exhibition, Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2012

Pulse Contemporary Art Fair 2012, New York, New York

 

2011

No Object Is An Island: New Dialogues with the Cranbrook Collection, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 2011

Micaela Amateau Amato, Lynda Benglis, Heather McGill, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2011 Paper Cuts, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, California, 2011

Edge: Heather McGill, Richard Rezac, James Shrosbree, Paul Kotula Projects, Ferndale, Michigan, 2010

 

2010

The Last Time I Saw Richard, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio, 2010

Topographies, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 2010

 

2009

Second Best and Scraps and Makeshifts, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2009

Michigan Masters Invitational, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 2009

 

2008

Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, 2008

REMIX Recent Acquisitions: Work on Paper, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 2008

Considering Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, Catalog, 2008

Flower Power: A Subversive Botanical, The New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2008

The Matter at Hand, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, Tennessee, 2008

 

2007

Birds, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2007

Pull My Daisy, Miller/Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2007

Cut, Paul Kotula Projects, Ferndale, Michigan, 2007

 

2006

Harmless Visual Stimulation, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2006

Cutting, Miller/Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2006

 

2005

Extreme Abstraction, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 2005

Draw, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005

Heather McGill: Black Drawings, Miller/Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2005

 

2004

About Painting, The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York, 2004

New Work, Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2004

10: A Ten-Year Anniversary Exhibition, Revolution, Ferndale, Michigan, 2004

 

2003

Lines, Dots and Curlicues, Miller/Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 2003

New Prints 2003/Summer, International Print Center, New York, New York, 2003

 

2002

Bounce!, Revolution, Ferndale, Michigan, 2002

One-Person Exhibition, Revolution, Ferndale, Michigan, 2002

 

2001

Prototype: Invention & Design in the Work of Four Artists, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, New York, 2001

 

2000

On Paper III, Revolution, Ferndale, Michigan, 2000

Particular Vision II, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 2000

 

1999

Wall Magnets, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1999

Postopia, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, California, 1999

 

1998

Invitational 1998, Knoedler & Company, New York, New York, 1998

Painting Language, L.A. Louver, Venice, California, 1998

Memory, TZ’ Art & Company, New York, New York, 1998

 

1997

Esthetics of Minimized Drag, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan, 1997

 

1996

Particular Vision, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 1996

 

1995

Intervention, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, 1995

Natural Inclination, Krasl Art Center, Saint Joseph, Michigan, Catalog, 1995

Gallery Artists, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 1995

 

1994

Paper Doll / Social Template, Organization Independent Artist, New York, New York, 1994

Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, 1994

Popular Culture, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 1994

1993

Here’s Looking at Me: Contemporary Self-Portraits, Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain, France; Serpentine Gallery, London; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Seville Museum, Seville, Spain, Catalog, 1993

One-Person Exhibition, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 1993

William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington, 1993

 

1992

Fragile Ecologies: Artist’s Interpretations and Solutions, The Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York; Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Washington; Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin; San Jose Museum, San Jose, California, Catalog, 1992

A Siege in the Room, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1992

Group Show, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, 1992

Kunst Kommt von Technik, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, Catalog, 1992

Art From The Exploratorium, Mole Antonelliana, Torino, Italy, Catalog, 1992

 

1991

Nine Plus One: New Work by Cranbrook’s Artists-in-Residence, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1991

Technorama, Winterthur, Switzerland, 1991

 

1990

Artists Respond to the Environment, Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, California, 1990

PUBLIC ART: Models & Drawings, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, 1990

 

1989

Untitled, Exploration: City Site Phase II, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1989

36 Trees, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California, 1989

Condo, Public Sculpture in Marin, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California, Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, 1989

 

1988

Art in Public Buildings, California State University, Fresno, California, 1988

ARS-Y-TECH-URA, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1988

The Garden Project, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California, 1988

Isla de Umunnum (Island of the Hummingbirds), Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Sanctuary, Collaboration with John Roloff, Moss Landing, California, 1986-88

 

1987

Crow Canyon Garden / Sanctuary, Crow Canyon Institute, San Ramon, California, 1987

 

1986

Three Floating Pieces for the Oakland Estuary, Oakland, California, 1986

Landscape: Unusual Vantages, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1986

 

1985

Nature as a Metaphor, The Annual: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, Catalog, 1985

Crystal Spiral / Native House, Interarts of Marin, Corte Madera, California, 1985

 

1984

Lite / Site / Projection, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1984

Four New Works, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, California, 1984

 

 

Commissions & Public Art

 

The Progressive Corporation, Annual Report Commission 2017

AXA Art Insurance, Art Basel Miami Beach, 2009

Delphi Automotive Systems, General Motors Worldwide Headquarters, Troy, Michigan, 1997

Isla de Umunnum (Island of the Hummingbirds) Elkhorn Slough National Estaurine Sanctuary, Collaboration with John Roloff, Moss Landing, California, 1986-88

 

 

Reviews & Publications

 

Diana, Gaston, “Dear Things, Sweet Things, ” Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, 2015. (exhibition essay)

Taylor, Sue, “Canny Devices, Uncanny Enigmas,”Canzani Gallery, Columbus College of Art and Design, 2014.

(exhibition essay)

McQuaid, Cate. “Art Gallery Review: Cracking open dreamtime with visual punch,” The Boston Globe, March 26, 2014.

Buckner, Cindy M. “Oblique Angles and Meaningful Shifts,” Grand Rapids Art Museum, 2013. (exhibition essay) McQuaid, Cate. “Art Gallery Review: Can Paisley, plaid, and wood grain coexist?,” The Boston Globe, April 18, 2012.

Mullins, Matthew. “Interview with Heather McGill,” ArtSlant, February 21, 2012.

Margolis Pineo, Sarah. “ Is There a Place for Poetry, Art and Resistance in the Twenty First Century,” Cranbrook Art Museum, November 2011. p. 93-94. (catalogue)

Russo, Kim. “Tedious Beauty,” Albuquerque Journal, June 19, 2009.

Halperen, Max. Review “Art on Paper.” ART PAPERS, January/Feburary 2009.

Green, Sholes, B Roger. “Cranbrook Craft and What the Future May Hold,” American Craft Magazine, Summer 2008, p. 60. (image)

McQuaid, Cate. “Balancing Artifice and Innocence,” The Boston Globe, June 7, 2007.

Craig, Gerry. “Formal Magnetism,” Surface Design, summer 2007, p.26-31.

Berkovitch, Ellen. Review, Artforum, September 2006, p. 381-382.

Ross, Alex. “Heather McGill: Harmless Visual Stimulation,” THE Magazine, August 2006, p. 71.

Berkovitch, Ellen. “Out of Site,” Art + Auction, June 2006, p. 92.

McQuaid, Cate. “Marks of Distinction,” The Boston Globe, February 9, 2006.

Hirsch, Faye. “Abstract Generations,” Art in America, October 2005, p. 191.

Laget, Mokha. “Heather McGill: New Work,” THE Magazine, July 2004, p. 73.

Craig, Gerry. “Chromatic Insurgency,” Sculpture, Volume 22, No. 8, October 2003.

Tysh, George. “Art That Bytes,” Metro Times, January 29-February 4, 2003, p. 10-12.

Wilson, Stephen. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. MIT Press, 2002, p. 253.

Tysh, George. “Cut From the Mold,” Metro Times, March 20-26, 2002, p. 24.

Alsenas, Linas. “Designers on the Rise,” Interior Design, No. 14, November 2001, p. 82-83.

Hough, Jessica. “Prototype: Invention & Design in the Work of Four Artists,” The Art Center for the Capital Region, Troy, New York, 2001. (essay)

Blinderman, Barry. “Wall Magnets,” Cranbrook Art Museum, November 1999. (essay)

Campbell, Craig S. and Michael H. Ogden, Constructed Wetlands in the Sustainable Landscape. Wiley, 1999, p. 234.

Kingsley, April. “Perfection,” dART International, Volume 2, No. 1, winter 1999.

Pagel, David. “Abstract Views,” Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1998.

Popeson, Pamela. “Loading the Canon,” Cover, Volume 12, No. 5, 1998.

Miro, Marsha. “Design as Discourse,” Casabella, Volume 646, 1997, p. 38-47.

Carducci, Vincent. “On View,” The New Art Examiner, January 1996.

Grande, John K. Balance: Art and Nature. Black Rose Books, 1995, p. 208.

Yau, John. “Storehouse of Virtual Reality,” 1995. (catalogue)

Brunon, Bernard P. “AUTOPORTRAITS Contemporains,” Espace Lyonnais d’ Art Contemporain, January 1993. p. 92. (catalogue)

Farr, Sheila. “Good Medicine, Fragile Ecologies at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art,” Artweek, Volume 24, No. 6, March 18, 1993.

Hackett, Regina. “The Art of Saving the Earth,” Seattle Times, February 26, 1993.

Stark, Gail. “Earth Healing Arts,” The Berringham Herald, March 3, 1993.

Nawrocki, Dennis. Sculpture, March - April 1993, p. 76-77.

Heartney, Eleanor. ART News, Volume 91, No. 10, December 1992, p. 122.

Miro, Marsha. “At Cranbrook: A Room of Her Own,” Detroit Free Press, December 13, 1992. Klemic, Mary. “A Room with a Point of View,” The Eccentric, December 31, 1992.

Kimmelman, Michael. The New York Times, November 27, 1992.

Hess, Elizabeth. “A Gallery of Trash,” Village Voice, October 6, 1992.

Matilsky, Barbara C. Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artist’s Interpretation and Solutions, Rizzoli International Publications, 1992, p. 104-107.

Multi Mediale 2, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medietechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1991, p. 16-28.

Solnit, Rebecca. “Public Art Works: Bringing the Mountains to Mohammed,” Artweek, September 9, 1989. Thibeau, Alice. San Francisco Magazine, p. 104, June 1989.

 

 

Teaching & Residencies

 

Head, Sculpture Department, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1991-2017

Artist in Residence, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 2015

Artist in Residence, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, Washington, 1993

Assistant Professor, Sculpture Department, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, 1989-1991

Visiting Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, California, 1986-1990

Artist-in-Residence, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, California, 1983-1984

 

 

Education

 

San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A., 1984

 

 

Awards

 

Kresge Artist Fellowship, 2011

Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, 1999

California Arts Council Grant / Art in Public Buildings Program, 1986

Small Projects Award, Interarts, Marin County, California, 1985

Ford Foundation Grant, 1984

 

Lectures & Panels

 

Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 2015

Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio, 2014

Grand Rapids Art Museum, 2013

University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, 2013

Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 2010

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 2010

Progressive Insurance Company Headquarters, Cleveland, Ohio 2010

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 2009

Interactions-International: Women, Art, Criticism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2008

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Fellowship Panelist for Sculpture, 2007

Dialog 360: Artists in Conversation, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe New Mexico, 2006

Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 2004

Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2003

Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 2003

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, 2003

Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 2002

California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, California, 2002

Institute of International Education, National Screening Committee, New York, New York, 2001-04

Washington University, School of Art, St. Louis, Missouri, 1999

17th International Sculpture Conference, panelist, Chicago, Illinois, 1998

Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, 1996

New York University, New York, New York, 1995

Aesthetics and Ideologies: Interdisciplinary Conference, Conference in Modern Literature, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 1994

University of California at Davis, Davis, California, 1990

New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, 1989

University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 1988

Mills College, Oakland, California, 1988

San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1988

California Arts Council, Art in Public Places Selection Panel, Sacramento, California, 1988

 

 

 

Public Collections

 

Hood Art Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover New Hampshire

Permanent Collection of the US Embassy, Helsinki, Finland, Art in Embassies, US Department of State

University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital

Miami Art Museum

The Kresge Art Museum

The Progressive Art Collection

Wellington Management, Boston, Massachusetts

Hallmark Inc., Kansas City, Missouri

21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky

Sprint, Overland Park, Kansas

Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Fidelity Investments, Boston, Massachusetts

Compuware Corporation, Detroit, Michigan

Daimler Chrysler World Headquarters, Auburn Hills, Michigan

Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, Michigan

Seattle University, Seattle, Washington

Delphi Automotive Systems, General Motors World Headquarters, Troy, Michigan

State of California, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, California

Falkirk Cultural Center, City of San Rafael, San Rafael, California

The Exploratorium Science Museum, San Francisco, California