Colleen Heslin (born 1976) is a Canadian mixed-media artist based in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, Canada. Heslin works predominantly with
textiles and
quilting
Quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. ...
to create an abstract compositions.
Personal life
Heslin was born in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Ontario and raised in
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
. She graduated from the
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co ...
in 2003 with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and in 2014 she graduated with a
Master of Fine Arts from
Concordia University in painting and drawing.
Career
As a young artist Heslin established ''The Crying Room'' (1999-2014)'','' a rented retail unit on Cordova Street and Main Street in Vancouver which she used as an exhibition space of other local artists' works.
Her artist-run space became a venue for many new and emerging artists and placed an emphasis on equal exposure for female and male artists.
A large focus on community can also be seen at Heslin's ''Crying Room'' in "The Writing on the Wall" project, which was a twenty-two-week public art project in 2011 exhibited outside the front of the gallery, as well as the "Chalkboard" project in 2003, also in front of the gallery. Under the gallery's operations Heslin facilitated several interviews with the exhibited artists on topics such as their inspiration, media, and style. Heslin also completed several residencies in North America and Europe including in Saskatchewan, Vevey, Berlin, Malcolm Island, and Joshua Tree between the years 2011-2016.
She is represented by Monte Clark Gallery.
RBC Canadian Painting Contest
On October 2, 2013 Heslin was announced as the winner of the 15th Annual
Royal Bank of Canada's (RBC) Canadian Painting Competition for her painting titled ''Almost Young and Wild and Free''. The winning painting incorporated several large swaths of fabric in bright hues of blue, gold and magenta and has a ''
tromp l'oeil'' three-dimensional effect. She was praised for her "fresh approach to a traditional medium" with her usage of textiles and craft work.
For her first-place finish, Heslin received $25 000 and her piece was added to RBC's private art collection.
Runners-up in the competition were Colin Muir Doward and Neil Harrison.
Style and works
Heslin's textile series of paintings uses hand-dyed, previously owned domestic fabrics (i.e. bed sheets, clothing) which are hung to dry in bunches which result in a three-dimensional ''tromp-l'oeil'' effect on the fabrics. Heslin sews abstract fabric shapes together in a process similar to
quilting
Quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. ...
and then stretches the "abstract collage of cottons and linens" together around a frame.
She developed this style around 2010 when she started to keep off-cuts of paintings for studies for future works.
In her painting, ''Chain of Command'' (2016), the washed-out grey panels suspend eight colourful, abstract shapes that have no obvious pattern or rhythm. The colourful, almost geometric, shapes do not directly border one another and they spread out to fill the entirety of the frame. Her paintings vary in their colour palette but seem to either be dominated by a greyscale palette or a blend of rich colours. The titles of her works "reflect a gesture within the work" and suggest a "landscapes of figures."
The result has been compared to modernist
abstract expressionist
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
paintings of the 1960s and 1970s, specifically with the
Colour Field painters.
Influences
Heslin has previously stated she drew inspiration from artists such as
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
.
There are many similarities between Delaunay's 1911 patchwork quilt and Heslin's paintings in the brightly coloured bits of fabric sewn together. Art critics have compared Heslin's style to other modernist artists, and identified similarities to
Jack Bush
John Hamilton Bush (March 20, 1909 – January 24, 1977) was a Canadian abstract painter. A member of Painters Eleven, his paintings are associated with the Color Field movement and Post-painterly Abstraction. Inspired by Henri Ma ...
,
Dan Christensen
Dan Christensen, (October 6, 1942 – January 20, 2007) was an American abstract painter
He is best known for paintings that relate to Lyrical Abstraction, Color field painting, and Abstract expressionism.
Christensen was born in Cozad ...
,
William Perehudoff, and
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
for their use of large abstract shapes in bright colours.
Critical reception
Heslin's use of traditional craft work in her textiles and needlework is often linked to discussions on feminism in labour and art,
an element explored by several
second wave feminist
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
W ...
artists like
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...
in ‘’Dinner Party’’. Toronto's ''
Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it f ...
'' newspaper compares Heslin's works to
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...
's paper cutouts and to Ludwig Sander's oil panels and describes her work as "the domestication or 'feminization' of the Colour Field machismo." Heslin's use of secondhand materials has been viewed as a comment on consumer excess.
Select exhibitions
*''Avant que je ne change d'avis,'' with Les Ramsay, RATS Collective, Vevey, Switzerland (2013)
*''Slow Down, Get Lost,'' with Les Ramsay, Kinderhook & Caracas, Berlin Germany (2013)
*''Ballads from the North Sea,'' Laroche/Joncas (2014)
*''Outcasts and Shady Trees'', Monte Clark Gallery, (2014)
*''Treading Bouylines'' (solo), Charles, H. Scott Gallery (2015)
*''Walking and Falling: Colleen Heslin and Vanessa Brown,'' ESP, Toronto (2015)
*''Needles and Pins'', (solo) Th
Esker Foundation (2016)
*''Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures,''
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...
(2016)
*''Colleen Heslin: Needles and Pins'' (solo),
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection (MCAC) is an art museum in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located on a property in Kleinburg, an unincorporated village in Vaughan. The property includes the museum's main building, a sculpture garde ...
(June 4, 2016 – February 20, 2017)
*''Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting,''
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...
(2017-18)
*''Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT,''
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...
(2018)
*''The Other Side: Artworks from RBC Canadian Painting Competition Alumni,''
The Power Plant
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is a Canadian non-collecting public contemporary art gallery located at the heart of Toronto, Ontario at the Harbourfront Centre. It is a registered Canadian charitable organization supported by its membe ...
, Toronto (2018)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heslin, Colleen
1976 births
Living people
Canadian women artists
Concordia University alumni
Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni