Alex Heilbron is a Los Angeles–based artist whose work examines pattern as both a formal device and a site of cultural meaning shaped by social, psychological, and political perceptions of femininity. Drawing from found images, she enlarges and distills these forms, burrowing into them at the pixel level to intuit underlying structures. These patterns are exhaustively translated into vinyl stencils and placed on the surface of the canvas, building surfaces that are meticulously handmade yet constrained by digital systems. Across her work, Heilbron insists on painting as a physical mode of communication, embedding traces of embodied labor within systems that increasingly threaten to eclipse it.

 

Alex Heilbron (b. San Rafael, California) received her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and studied with Rita McBride and Christopher Williams at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany. Her work has been exhibited internationally including at as-is, Meliksetian Briggs, Temple Projects, and LAXART in Los Angeles, CA; Claremont Lewis Museum in Claremont, CA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, CA; The Modern in Fort Worth, TX; Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver, BC, Canada; Anne Barrault in Paris, France; Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Germany; and Moscow Museum of Art in Moscow, Russia. Heilbron received a Pollock-Krasner Grant for 2023-2024 and a Helen Frankenthaler Painting Award in 2020. Her work has been featured and reviewed in publications including The Brooklyn Rail, artnet, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, Glasstire, Paper City Magazine, and Santa Barbara Independent. Heilbron lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Born in San Rafael, California

Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

EDUCATION

2020

MFA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

2017

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Meisterschüler from Christopher Williams

2009

BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, A

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

All Systems Fail, As Is, Los Angeles, CA
Lined Adornment, Claremont Lewis Museum, Claremont, CA

2024

Assembler, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, BC, Canada

2023

Apophenic, Meliksetian Briggs, Dallas, TX

2022

Pre-Nuptial Agreement, NADA, New York, NY

2021

Time and Intent, Meliksetian Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

2020

High Shame, Hiestand Galleries, Oxford, OH

2017

Scent Description for a Young Woman, Ashley, Berlin, Germany
Before Physician Narratives Came Patient Narratives, Storage Capacite, Düsseldorf, Germany

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

Compression, Temple Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2024

Born Digital, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

2023

At the Wolford House, Wolford House, Los Angeles, CA
California Subject, Temples, Los Angeles, CA

2022

Women Painting Women, The Modern, Fort Worth, TX
, Cassoni, with Niko Chodor, Anne Baurrault, Paris, France

2021

Riviera Parking, (*as Riviera Parking), Studio for Artistic Research, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sub-Shapes, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2019

C"BARET What Not/Speak Easy, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA

2018

Jahresgaben, Düsseldorf Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, Germany

2017

If the body is a temple and a body is a subject and a temple has walls – it becomes apparent that a temple is a body, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
Visual Athletics, Cosmo Sports, Düsseldorf, Germany

2016

Mise En Abyme, Good Press Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
Expi5050loveja, Container, Düsseldorf, Germany
Makes Your Soul Feel Good Forever #2, Good Forever, Düsseldorf, Germany
She Hated Haiku, Poppy's, Sacramento, CA

2015

Too Good to Be True, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Mittagstisch, Ladybug House, San Francisco, CA

2014

Wacky Worlds, Mission Comics, San Francisco, CA
Above the Wall Below the Wall, Unit Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Speed Dating, Zollamt, Offenbach, Germany
Kanadianish Deutsch Freundschaft, Lucky's Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2013

Sleepover, Positive/Negative, Vancouver, BC
All the Rotten Eggs In One Baskey, Gallery Fukai, Vancouver, BC

RESIDENCIES & AWARDS

2023

Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant

2021

Canadian Council for the Arts, Research and Creation Grant

Kala Art Institute Residency, Berkeley, CA

2019

Helen Frankenthaler Painting Award

British Colombia Arts Scholarship

William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award

PUBLICATIONS

2022

Women Painting Women, exhibition catalogue, edited with text by Andrea Karnes. Preface by Marla Price. Text by Emma Amos, Faith Ringgold, and Lorna Simpson.

SELECTED ARTIST LECTURES

2024

Artist Talk, Museum of Contemporary Art, Dallas

Artist Talk, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

2023

Visiting Lecturer, Scripps College, Department of Art, Claremont, CA (ongoing)

2022

Art Department Visiting Lecturer, University of California Santa Barbara

Artist Talk, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France

2021

Artist Talk (as Riviera Parking), University of California Santa Barbara

2020

Artist Talk, Miami University, Miami, FL

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2024

Woodward, Josef. “Blurring the Lines Between Technology and Old-School Art," Santa Barbara Independent, Apr. 22

2023

“Spotlight: Artist Alex Heilbron’s Intensely Ornamented New Paintings Play onf the Ways the Human Brain Processes Patterns," artnet, Sep. 8

2022

Miller, Maggie. “Celebrating ‘Women Painting Women’ – Inside the Reception for Fort Worth’s Buzzy New Exhibit," Paper City, May 31

2021

Stromberg, Matt. “Alex Heilbron at Melisetian | Briggs," Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, Mar. 3

2020

Corwin, William. “Protecting Renoir: The Legacy of Helen Frankenthaler," The Brooklyn Rail, Jan.