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Lee Massey Heekin EDUCATION 2008 Masters in Fine Art, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 2003 Masters in Education, Visual Arts, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY 2001 Bachelor of Arts, Kenyon College, OH, Fine Arts and Environmental Studies COMMUNITY WORK AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY: 2005 Kenya, Olitokitok School, Foothills of Mt. Killimanjaro, Kenya, organized and painted Murals with students 2003 Silvermine Arts Guild, Pastel Drawing Intensive, Norwalk, Connecticut, June-July 2001 Pendland Art School, Working with Encaustics, North Carolina 2001 Connecting Collections, A workshop with the Whitney, MOMA, MET,and Guggenheim museums, NYC, July-August 2000 School for Field Studies Kenya, Africa –Wildlife Management, Ecology,& Environmental Studies 1999 Anderson Hill Ranch, B&W Photography Intensive, Colorado SOLO SHOWS: 2008 "New Works by Lee Heekin", Fredrick Victoria Gallery, NYNY 2008 "Porous Boundaries", Pratt Studio Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2002 “Lines Of Confinement”, Wallace performing Arts Center, Greenwich, CT 2001 “Lines Of Confinement”, Olin Art Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH SELECTED GROUP SHOWS: 2010 "Open Wall", Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO 2010 "Waal-Boght", SHO Gallery, Brooklyn,NY 2009 "Patchogue Biennial". Patchogue, NY 2009 "Brooklyn Artillery Show", Eva Space Gallery, Bushwick,NY 2009 "Informative Segments", FUEL Gallery, Philadelphia. PA 2009 "Fireproof", SHO Gallery, Brooklyn,NY 2009 "Seeking Solitude", RFK Gallery, GA 2009 Fire Proof, SHO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2008 "Preeminent Notions", Lucky Gallery, Redhook Brooklyn, NY 2008 “In Between,” a Collaboration with Mary Cook, Frederick P. Victoria&Son Design Studio, NYNY 2008 "Light/Picture/Paint", 717 Gallery, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY 2008 "The Looking Glass", The Apartment, Gramercy Park, NYNY 2008 MFA Group Show, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 2007 "The Lack of Desire", Brooklyn Arts Council Collective Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2007 "UNDERCURRENT", White Box Annex, Group Show, Chelsea, NY 2007 "One Night Stand", Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY 2007 "MFA group Show", Pratt Institute, Steuban Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2007 Writing Our Future, National Arts Club New York, NY, 2006 "122 for 122", PS122 Gallery, NY, NY 2005 Arts to the Avenue, Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich CT 2004 Group Benefit Show New York Academy of Arts, New York, NY 2003 Northern Westchester Hospital, Westchester, NY GRANTS/AWARDS/OTHER 2008 President of the Pratt Artist League 2005 Recipient of faculty development award that provided a grant to travel to Africa where vacation breaks were spent working with homeless children and painting murals at the Homeless Children International school-Kenya. 2001 Awarded distinction in Fine Arts, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH PUBLICATIONS 2009 MFA Thesis Catalogue, Pratt Institute, NY, NY 2009 Patchogue Biennial Catalogue p. 22 2009 Informative Segments, May 21-28, City Paper, PA 2005 News Channel 12 interview, Ct 2005 Greenwich Time, Front Page, 'Teacher finds Spirit of Christmas in Kenya', Jan 15th 2003 Greenwich Time Newspaper, New Angle on Picasso, 11/1, p. A4 2002 Arts and Activities Magazine, Master Pieces: Picasso Collage, September issue, p.37 2001 Greenwich Time Newspaper, "Aligned with nature, a photographer's exhibit" p. B4
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Lee Heekin
Artist Statement

The Grids mythic power is that it makes us able to think we are dealing with materialism (or sometimes science, or logic) while at the same time it provides us with a release into belief (or illusion, or fiction).
Roasalind Kraus

Lee Heekin’s interests lie in the investigation of the box as representation for confinement. She began by examining aspects of life; preserving the objects in wax and in doing so, literally illuminating these objects regardless of their value. Heekin recognizes the human instinct to label, categorize and compartmentalize. Her grids speak to the fragmentation in our world created by these instincts. She explores this need to place value, while arranging compartments into different configurations trying to ignore hierarchy or information or value.

Heekin has begun to explore these ideas sculpturally and most recently on two-dimensional surfaces. The 2-D representations have resulted in colorful paintings of the grid with oil and wood stain on canvas. In Heekin’s paintings the grid is disassembled: rectangular forms may overlap while distinct contour lines waver. Layers of pigment waver to enhance an ambiguous atmosphere to further distort the austere form of the rectangle. Heekin now lives and works in Boulder, Co where she continues to pursue an exploration of the varying possibilities of the grid.