New York, NY - My Pet Ram is pleased to present The Way Home featuring new paintings by Heather Drayzen.

Drayzen makes small-scale paintings of quiet, domestic scenes featuring herself and her loved ones. Drawing from her interior world and emotions, she heightens experiences like sharing a cup of morning coffee, grabbing a bite from the fridge, or napping with the pups through atmospheres of iridescent golden light. The chromatic intensity and subject matter in Drayzen's paintings feel undeniably contemporary, yet she also borrows elements from historical masters, such as Bonnard, Vuillard, Morisot, and Munch. The artist pares down parts of her paintings to varying degrees, which creates a psychological energy that flirts between figuration and abstraction. Meanwhile, fields of Day-Glo color contrast with more neutral tones to offer viewers a generous sensory experience. Overall, Drayzen's painted vignettes are placed within a longer timeline, creating a luminous, emotional narrative.

Over winter break, we drove four hours along the Texas highway to see Bonnard’s retrospective at the Kimbell Museum. On the way home, the moon adorned in a blue ochre sky, trailed behind us, a celestial companion in the night. Marthe in the Bath and Bonnard’s paintings after her passing echoed in my thoughts, their glistening vermillions casting shadows on my reflections. I thought about how moments in my own life string together like this moon weaving in and out from behind the clouds flooding them with light.

This work is a love letter to the people I cherish and to my immediate world. In May 2023, I was hospitalized and endured a flood in July. Since then, I’ve carried on for the last year painting, riding the train, teaching, visiting family and friends and stitching these moments together in paint form. My paintings are touched with the seasons and time of day along with the rituals of my daily life - from mixing my palette, my husband shaving in the Catskills, light dancing on the studio floor, lying in my hospital bed, and prisms shimmering through my window.

-Heather Drayzen, 2024

Heather Drayzen (b. 1985, San Antonio, TX)  lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her MAT from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI (2008) and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, NY (2007). Drayzen took part in a two-person exhibition at My Pet Ram in New York City, NY (2023) along with works included on PLATFORM (2023). She has also participated in group shows at Myriam Chair Galerie in Paris, France (2023), Thierry Goldberg in New York City, NY (2023), and Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA (2023), among others. She was an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT (2023). Her paintings have been featured in Art Maze Magazine.

The Way Home will be on view beginning Friday, May 3 - June 2, 2024. The gallery is located at 48 Hester Street in the Lower East Side. Gallery hours are Thursday -Sunday from 12-6pm and by appointment. For more information about this exhibition, please email info@mypetram.com.