Paintings Like Pictures, Museum Views is Richard Heipp’s first solo exhibition in NY after more that 50 years of exhibiting his painting in various museums and galleries across the U.S. 

Heipp has been painting images of sculptures since as early as 1976. Recent works are part of a large ongoing series titled “Museum Studies.” This body of works confronts how the interpretation and consumption of artworks and artifacts are affected through layered visual and cultural systems of seeing, their institutional display and ultimately their translation into his paintings.  

The title of the show refers to Heipp’s commitment to translating the photographs he captures in the museum. His paintings remain faithful to the fidelity of the photograph and exploit various photographic tropes that differ from our retinal seeing. His goal is that through the metamorphosis that takes place through his painting process, he creates an “alchemic” type image and viewing experience that is engaging and contemplative.

His paintings address intriguing systems that question issues surrounding craft, illusion, originality, consumption, and our cultural value systems. 

Richard Heipp has an extensive national exhibition record including over thirty solo exhibitions in museums and galleries nationally and his work has been featured in well over one hundred group exhibitions. His paintings are included in numerous public and private collections including the Seattle Museum of Art, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Harn Museum of Art, Polk Museum of Art, Miami University, and Stetson University. In addition he was commissioned to complete 20 site-specific public art projects. His many awards include six State of Florida, Individual Artist Fellowships, and a Southern Arts Federation, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in painting. In 2018 a retrospective exhibition was organized and mounted by the Polk Museum of Art which traveled to the University of North Carolina Charlotte and to Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth Texas concluding its run at UF’s University Gallery in 2021. He taught painting at the University of Florida’s School of Art and Art History for 40 years retiring in May 2021 as Professor Emeritus to concentrate on his studio practice.