KATY HEINLEIN
CAVE BACON
Opening Reception: May 20, 2015 | 6 – 8:30 PM
On view through June 25, 2016
Art Palace presents Cave Bacon, a solo exhibition of sculptures by Katy Heinlein. Using readily-available materials like wood, metal, and synthetic fabric, Heinlein produces sculptures that are comfortable with their close relationship to both painting and fashion. By reinterpreting a painting’s basic elements of a stretchers, “canvas,” and color, the materials transform into objects that share physical space with the viewer. The work actively demonstrates how perceptible qualities like color and light relate to the physical forces of tension, mass, and gravity.
Heinlein’s product is vague but suggestive; one can freely anthropomorphize the clever forms and carefully-considered nocturnal color palette. The work in this exhibition assumes a Rorschach quality, as the artist looks to inexact symmetry found in nature and the human body. Heinlein maintains ambiguity with her titles, and she chooses phrases that have buoyant, laissez-faire connotations. The exhibition’s title, Cave Bacon, refers to the dense flowstone deposits that drape across some cave ceilings, implausibly appearing supple, translucent, and light-weight. Though droll, Heinlein also winks at the allegory of Plato’s Cave, a story fundamentally outlining the correlative relationship between perception and reality. Cave Bacon charms the viewer into looking over, under, around and through, requited with humor and cunning.
Heinlein received her MFA in sculpture from Texas Tech University and her BFA from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. In addition to her previous exhibitions at Art Palace, Katy’s work has been exhibited internationally and locally through the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Diverseworks, Lawndale Art Center, and Bryan Miller Gallery (CTRL.) She has collaborated on set and costume design for the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater for Spectre de la Rose, performed at Miller Outdoor Theatre and Zilka Hall. Heinlein lives and works in Houston, TX.