Heather Eastes deploys simple materials sparingly; paper, graphite, white acrylic paint and, occasionally, fleeting tones of blue, red and brown convene into subtle and delicate works, of painterly vein – a pictorial cosmos that is wholly independent. It is the plane where the artist engages intensely with marks, stains and traces of colour and where, for her, they ignite association and memory; and, in turn, through the working process, these emerge embodied, the protagonists of the scene.

 

Heather Eastes’ pictorial world is populated by faces, heads, bodies, obsessive visual recollections of early relationships and longings, mostly of childhood – with the fragile need of community and identity. An invocation of mythological archetypes, spirituality and religion, humans, beasts and God wander through her universe. Metaphors, symbols for early, primal relationships and states, by the same token they reference the present world - Mother (as a goddess, or a distant bird), father (as a god, a devil, a dog), child, brother, sister, the male, the female, heaven and earth seek one another, destined to remain apart.
S Reader, U Bugdahn 2012 

 

Work in public and private collections, including the Deutsche Bank Collection in Stuttgardt, Landstag  Düsseldorf and the Hanck Collection and  Collection of Contemporary Prints and Drawings in Museum  Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.

Born: Portsmouth, England.

Lives: Aberystwyth, Wales.

 

Education:

BA (Hons) History and Visual Art University of Wales, AberystwythMeisterschuler (MFA) , Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Art, 1979.

 

2011 - Elected to  the  Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, North Wales.

 

Solo exhibitions (selection):

2014- In Arcadia, Oriel Wrecsam Gallery, Wrexham.

2012 - Other Times Different Places, Galerie Bugdahn & Kaimer, Duesseldorf.

2008 - Beasts, Angels, Silver Fields, Pebble Walk Gallery, BBC LLandaff Cardiff.

2007 - Fragment Sounds ...(with Katja Koelle), Sound Studio Viersen, Germany.

Paper Faces, Malkasten Gallery, Dusseldorf.

2001 - The Artists Life (with Pete Bailey), St. David's Hall, Cardiff.

2000 - Dreaming of Babylon (with Pete Bailey), Llanover Hall Arts Centre, Cardiff.

1993 - Heather Eastes Fragment Drawings, Kollmeier Gallery, Essen.

1992 - Heather Eastes, Municipal Gallery, Bad Waldsee, Germany.

1988 - Fragment Drawings, Galerie udo Bugdahn, Dusseldorf.

 

Selected group exhibitions:

2014 - Yma ac Acw/Hier und Da/ Here and There: (Organiser) Rhondda Heritage park, Rhondda, Mid Wales Arts centre Caersws, Gas Gallery, Aberystwyth.

2013 -  Gas Gallery, Aberystwyth,National Eisteddfod  "Y Lle Celf".  

2012  - Affordable Art Exhibition, St Davids Hall, The Hayes, Cardiff.

DRAWINGMMX2, Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff.

Metrapolitan University, Cardiff.

2011 - Arddangosfa Celf a Chrefft/Y Lle Celf, Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Wrecsam, Wrexham, North Wales.

Artemisia, St Davids Hall Cardiff, Cardiff.

Polemically small on paper, Charlie Smith Gallery, London.

Polemically Small, (Curator: Edward Lucie-Smith) Garboushian Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Polemically Small on Paper,  Curators: Edward Lucie-Smith And The Future Can Wait, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance.

Three Artists, Three Journeys, Futures Gallery, Pierhead, National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff.

2007-2013  -  Yearly selected - Welsh Artist of the Year.

2010, St David's Hall, Cardiff

Y Lle Celf, Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Ebbw Vale.

2009 - Memory/Imagination, Millennium Centre Cardiff and Ty Crawshay Galleries, Pontypridd and University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd.

2008 - Arts and Crafts Exhibition, National Eisteddfod of Wales, Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff.

2008 -  Mapping the Welsh Group at 60, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Re:drawing, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Powys.

2004 - META, Bay Art Gallery, Cardiff, Gregynog Gallery National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Vilnius, Lithuania.

2001 - Looking Out, Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Newport S. Wales.

2000 - Revelations, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

1979- 2013 regular participant in the Grosse Düsseldorfer Art Show in Museum Kunstpalast Düssseldorf.

2007 - Welsh Artist of the Year Prize for Drawing, St David's Hall , Cardiff.