GBGLA is pleased to present “Palm Springs Weekend,” the gallery’s sixth solo exhibition of paintings by Danny Heller. The exhibition features the artist’s most recent body of realist oil paintings of mid-century architecture around Palm Springs. The exhibition is on view through June 12th.
After a difficult year of quarantines and ‘safer at home’ orders, we’re slowly beginning to leave our homes to once again venture into the outside and the unknown. At no other time has the idea of ‘home’ been under such examination: your geographical home, your mental home, and the home you share with others.
Heller’s work has always focused on ideas of home, community, neighborhood, and urban design. Through his paintings, he observes and documents primarily residential design and architecture and its historical impact, focusing on the post WWII midcentury housing boom. It was a time of great growth, both in population and in ideals to improve quality of life. Heller thought about those ideals often during this past year of lockdowns and how those living in midcentury Modern homes had the benefit of their unique designs: open, airy floor plans; an attention to nature due to atriums and interior gardens; and an emphasis on leisure and comfort with swimming pools and outdoor patios. He has always felt that the city of Palm Springs embodies these principles above and beyond any others, and so he chose to focus on this location of optimistic architecture for the latest body of work.
These paintings transport the viewer to the sun-drenched landscape of swimming pools, swaying palm trees, manicured lawns, and colorful cars, not only as an escape during hard times, but also as a reminder that well-conceived architecture is timeless and has an enormous impact on our lives.