Valerie Hegarty
Valerie Hegarty (born 1967 in Burlington, Vermont) is an American artist, who creates paintings, sculptures, and installations that comment on the deteriorating state of American society. Career. Hegarty attended Middlebury College where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, the Academy of Art College where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree. Hegarty has had several solo exhibitions in galleries and public institutions, as well as participated in numerous group exhibitions, has been the recipient of several awards and  fellowships,and has work in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Wadsworth Atheneum. For 2014-2015 she was the Andrew W. Mellon Artist-in-Residence at Drew University. As of 2016, Hegarty is now represented by Burning in Water, an art gallery in Chelsea section of Manhattan in New York City which is now known as the Malin Gallery., She won the 24th GNMH AWARD . Exhibitions. In early solo shows at Guild & Greyshkul gallery, she covered the entire gallery space with sculpted vegetation and shipwrecked seascapes. For a 2010 exhibition  at Nicelle Beauchene, her work played off of well-known works by modern artists, Sol LeWitt, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock, with LeWitt box-sculptures that looked torched, a steel-crumpled splatter painting, and a shredded 3-D foamcore and canvas Rothko. Reviewing this exhibition, critic Claire Barliant wrote: "In targeting Rothko's sanctified reputation, Hegarty brings her hero back to earth, reminding us that 'genius,' 'purity' and 'heroism' were qualities that came at a price." In "Altered States", a 2012 solo exhibition at Marlborough gallery, Hegarty returned to shipwrecks and large scale installations, juxtaposing barnacle-encrusted colonial-era ships  and sinking paintings with a charred and torn version of Gilbert Stuart's iconic portrait of George Washington. Her engagement with American history continued in "Alternative Histories" at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013, where she created site-specific interventions in the museum's period rooms. In an interview about this project, Hegarty stated, "With all the rooms I wanted to comment on certain aspects of American history that aren’t highlighted...They’re all European settler rooms, but they’re not really showing the darker side, which I guess is what I always do.” In 2016, Hegarty exhibited American Berserk, new  ceramic work from 2016 at Burning in Water Gallery. The gallery also produced a video of an exhibit-specific discussion with Hegarty and art historian Marisa Kayyem.