Mary Heilmann’s exhibition at Dia Beacon will mark the first dedicated presentation of the Starry Night series (1967–71) since its 1971 debut at Paley and Lowe Gallery in New York. For this series, Heilmann produced a group of unstretched canvases stained black and named after astronomical constellations, even binding a collection of them into a large, children’s book–like work known as The Book of Night (1970). Complementing these canvases are celestial clay or bamboo objects coated in flock, a type of textured fiber, that lean, protrude, or hang high from the wall, bringing the artist’s constructed galaxy into the space of the viewer. These works engage formal, conceptual, and cosmological notions of light and dark, evoking constellations through cut-outs, glitter, and other ad hoc material strategies.

Mary Heilmann: Starry Night is curated by Jordan Carter, curator, with Emily Markert, curatorial assistant.

All exhibitions at Dia are made possible by the Economou Exhibition Fund.

Mary Heilmann: Starry Night is made possible by support from Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip Aarons and Rennie Collection, Vancouver.

Mary Heilmann was born in San Francisco in 1940. She lives and works in Bridgehampton, New York, and New York. 

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