About the artist
Mercedes Hieb (b.2000), is a Guatemalan-American multi-disciplinary artist who’s work centres around womanhood, divine femeninity, spirituality, fate, and her distinct cultural heritage. Born originallly in New York City, Mercedes grew up in various cities including London and Hong Kong. Through her art, one can catch a glimpse of her vastly diverse upbringing with sneak peaks of distant islands, towering mountains, star spattered night skies, and roots that tie all of these divergent experiences into one cohesive body of work. Hieb seeks to celebrate the differences in humanity by depicting landscapes of far away lands that exist in ambiguity so that everyone, no matter where they are from, can in one shape or form find their own experiences mirrored in her work. Delving further into her themes of femeninity and the female experience, Hieb depicts raging red veins, motifs of tightly braided hair, and knotted umbillical cords in an exploration of what it means to be a woman and the deep connections between female anatomy and outward expression. Haunting self-portraits and surreal depictions of the human form are just part of Hieb’s vast oeuvre.
“If I’ve unsettled you and caused you to feel vulnerable, then I’ve done my job ”
WORKS
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After moving back to Ne York City in 2021, Hieb began working in Chelsea. Like a salmon returning to the place she once came from, the artist found herself working a mere three blocks away from her childhood brownstone home.
Memories are a powerful and undeniable thing. Inspired by the eclipsing experiences in her life, she painted a self portrait where her home emerges from her third eye. A vast landscape extends in the background and three stars representing herself and her two older brothers dance in the sky. A representation of passing time and the cyclical nature of life.
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Continuing Hieb’s exploration into the human form, this painting depicts two arms that anthropomorphize into a towering tree trunk ascending into the indigo night sky.
Hieb has long been interested in what she describes as the “denial of humanity as part and of nature.”
She notes that we live in a world where humanity is placed on a pedestal, where nature is something distant, inanimate, and separate from our existence. This painting is one of many that explore this denial, and celebrates spiritualism as a system of repairing that connection.
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After moving back to Ne York City in 2021, Hieb began working in Chelsea. Like a salmon returning to the place she once came from, the artist found herself working a mere three blocks away from her childhood brownstone home.
Memories are a powerful and undeniable thing. Inspired by the eclipsing experiences in her life, she painted a self portrait where her home emerges from her third eye. A vast landscape extends in the background and three stars representing herself and her two older brothers dance in the sky. A representation of passing time and the cyclical nature of life.
