reviews > Normal, IL

Heather Brammeier
Heather Brammeier

What happens when the canvas bursts its frame, jumps through hoops, splatters paint on the floor and walls, then gets stuck up in a tree or on a roof? The result is something like painter Heather Brammeier’s experiments in three-dimensional space. The artist uses zip ties, sticks and branches, nails, stitched and stuffed canvas, plastic tubing, quilts, furniture and other materials to create abstract installations and stand-alone sculptures of contagious energy and vast imaginative potency. She also uses a bit of good old paint, dabbing it here and there to add shocks of color where more is needed. Artworks that resemble scientific models, exploded paintings and walk-in abstract art ensue. Paint is no longer the only material available to a painter, only the most obvious and traditional one. The great Frank Stella and Jessica Stockholder would be proud.

—Lori Waxman 3/25/16 10:55 AM

*The artwork pictured here was made in collaboration with Jessica Bingham.