Hilary Brace
Encyclopedia
Hilary Brace is an American artist based in Santa Barbara, CA who makes drawings, photographs and prints. Brace is most widely known for her charcoal
on Mylar (polyester film) drawings of cloud-inhabited landscapes, which she first exhibited in a solo exhibition in 1997.
(2006), National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship (1993), California Arts Fellowship, and two grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation
. Her work is represented in Los Angeles by Craig Krull Gallery and in New York by Edward Thorp Gallery.
Brace's charcoal on Mylar drawings are included in numerous private and public collections including the Boise Art Museum, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Western Washington State University Art Museum. Other institutions that have exhibited Brace's drawings include the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, South Texas Institute of Art, Corpus Christi, TX, Columbus Museum, Columbus GA, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, and the Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR.
"Brace’s fictional spaces depict nameless, placeless spectacles staged by clouds but suggesting such continuity between states of matter - solid, liquid and gaseous – that they are equally convincing as skyscapes, seascapes or sometimes landscapes." In Brace's words, as a drawing develops, the image "moves from vague suggestion to refinement as a remote, nascent world takes on a clear and obtainable presence." Writing for the Los Angeles Times
, Christopher Knight stated that “the feeling is less one of romantic yearning for something up there, out of reach, than it is full immersion in something stunning, primordial and elusive but immediately at hand.” Despite their small scale, as Leah Ollman observed in Art in America
, these drawings “suggest a vastness at the opposite end of the experiential spectrum, scaled more to the imagination than to the body. What Brace’s stunning little drawings do is put those two realms– the private and the cosmic – within reach of each other.”
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
on Mylar (polyester film) drawings of cloud-inhabited landscapes, which she first exhibited in a solo exhibition in 1997.
Education and Representation
Hilary Brace received her MFA degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1985 and her BFA (1983) and BA degrees (in Painting and Art History) from Western Washington State University in Bellingham, WA. Over the past 25 years Brace has exhibited her work regularly in public institutions and commercial galleries. She is the recipient of numerous national and regional awards, including a Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(2006), National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship (1993), California Arts Fellowship, and two grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expressionist painter and the widow of fellow painter Jackson...
. Her work is represented in Los Angeles by Craig Krull Gallery and in New York by Edward Thorp Gallery.
Brace's charcoal on Mylar drawings are included in numerous private and public collections including the Boise Art Museum, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art is a large museum on the campus of Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and a constituent of the Caine College of the Arts at USU. The museum, which holds one of the largest collections in the entire Intermountain West with over 4,800 pieces, focuses largely...
, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Western Washington State University Art Museum. Other institutions that have exhibited Brace's drawings include the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, South Texas Institute of Art, Corpus Christi, TX, Columbus Museum, Columbus GA, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, and the Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR.
Charcoal Drawings
In reviewing Hilary Brace’s charcoal on Mylar drawings for the New York Times, Ken Johnson wrote, “once in a while you come across an art of such refined technique that it seems the product of sorcery more than human craft”. Despite the photographic veracity of her technique, Brace composes her images without premeditation, through an explorative process that allows them to unfold in unanticipated directions. Her current smaller, nearly postcard-sized charcoal drawings, along with her earlier charcoals, are made in a reductive manner by first darkening the entire surface with charcoal and then removing the medium with various hand-made tools, allowing the image to emerge through chance and intuition. For works of somewhat larger scale, greater complexity and more refined technique, Brace creates studies in a similarly explorative manner while she refers to photographs of sculptural tableaus and other diverse means of garnering information. Consequently, these recent works are more deceptively photographic."Brace’s fictional spaces depict nameless, placeless spectacles staged by clouds but suggesting such continuity between states of matter - solid, liquid and gaseous – that they are equally convincing as skyscapes, seascapes or sometimes landscapes." In Brace's words, as a drawing develops, the image "moves from vague suggestion to refinement as a remote, nascent world takes on a clear and obtainable presence." Writing for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Christopher Knight stated that “the feeling is less one of romantic yearning for something up there, out of reach, than it is full immersion in something stunning, primordial and elusive but immediately at hand.” Despite their small scale, as Leah Ollman observed in Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, these drawings “suggest a vastness at the opposite end of the experiential spectrum, scaled more to the imagination than to the body. What Brace’s stunning little drawings do is put those two realms– the private and the cosmic – within reach of each other.”