Published on April 1, 2026
The Fahrenheit Gallery, Valeria Aresti’s beautiful Madrid art space, is currently hosting the exhibition “Some Other Sunset” York star, the painter Heidi Hahn (b. Los Angeles, 1982). It comprises a series of 7 medium-sized oil paintings and 8 drawings, each of them dominated of a female body. These are women lost in thought, silent and, for the most part, in a forest lit only . Their faces are schematic, some have neither mouth nor eyes, but even so, they seem given over to deep, prolonged thoughts and lost in a loneliness that is palpable in each of the brushstrokes that compose the sleeve of their sweater or the rays of golden sunset on their shoulder. Through them, Heidi Hahn seems to want to sign a declaration of principles that distance her subjects from the classical canon and its interpretation, widely-held until the beginning of the 20th century, namely, the naked bodies of women as the focal point of their beauty. Instead, she wraps them – or rather shields them, like a cuirass – in clothing that is loose-fitting, neutral, warm and nondescript. Their faces, barely hinted at, also alert the visitor to the fact that, in this exhibition, physiognomy takes a backseat to the volume of the body. There is also a lot of silence, stillness and an incessant question floated on the air: What are these women thinking about?
From the outset, the contour lines of these bodies seem vaguely but surely reminiscent of Matisse and also, due to their solidity, of Picasso from his classical period. Matisse and Picasso, two undisputed trailblazers who, token, arguably set both the standards and the constraints preventing young artists from being free to step outside the confines of some very marked, very recognizable patterns. Playing supporting roles in this exhibition are the simplified outlines of trees, hazy, barely there, and, in most of the works, the coral pink lighting of a sunset. It is, perhaps, this twilight color that lends a somewhat sad, prolonged tone and very intimate voice to these women suspended in time. On these bright spring days in Madrid, the autumn light in Hahn’s paintings, the red sunsets, and the leafless trees with black trunks seem somewhat far removed from us. And yet, there is something deeply familiar to us in the message communicated from those lonely, pensive figures. Thus, these women, lacking in form and expression, beguile us precisely because they confront us with something that is strangely close, something that is palpable in every square meter of Madrid’s pavements: loneliness, introspection, doubt. Hahn’s women return us to the most fundamental questions, the ones that fill our lives and cities today during what will hopefully be the last days of the pandemic. Who are we, where are we going, what is going to happen now?
Hahn’s peculiar way of dressing her subjects is very much in keeping with her idea of altering the function of clothing so as to turn it into something that shifts between a layer of protection and an architectural covering: “I have painted women for a long time now just because I feel like I don’t know if I represented them yet in a way I find truly convincing […] I keep chasing this idea of like ‘oh I like the iconic idea of women, but I don’t like the classical.’ I don’t like romanticism that’s through the lens of the male gaze; the cliché male gaze. I care about how I see these women and how I want to represent the women in my life […] These women are trying to become something that they don’t necessarily have access to yet. And, so maybe the paint tries to point them in the right direction, if that makes sense, it’s trying to give them that strength where there is still that vulnerability, there is still something that is not quite figured out and that’s why the figures are looser, and their faces have this idea of falling apart while trying to become something that is very solid,” says Hahn. The attention to detail that Hahn pays to the fundamentals of technique is powerful – line, light, and color are the three keystones of an archway – her archway – leading us through areas of flat color and transforming them into places of feeling and emotion. Brushstrokes range from the almost liquid and transparent to the thickest, loaded with pictorial mass. Here, in a large number of canvases, she uses a striking technique, namely – painting simple flowers in repeated patterns as if they were on printed fabric or wallpaper. Up close, the texture of these fake block prints makes them almost touchable which leads us to believe that Hahn transforms feelings into something palpable.
These paintings are a tribute to ‘woman’ and her inner life. The way the paint is applied in different layers intensifies the narrative of each painting, calling to mind Edvard Munch and his search for the psychological portrait. Hahn strives to capture emotions and pent-up feelings. She turns the average woman, the one going about her daily routines, into her icon. Her anonymous characters seem lost in their own worlds and thoughts as they shop, sweep, prepare food, or tap on their mobile phones. They are, therefore, in total contrast with the widely-held consensus on ‘woman’ today – that she is more preoccupied with her appearance, fashion fads, the gym, and the rat race. Hahn, however, avoids all emphasis on the physical aspects of her models, or even their femaleness, to accentuate instead their moods. This is why Hahn speaks of a “narrative formalism,” referring to the amalgamation of paint and figures that happens in her work.
Hahn likes to work in series of sometimes up to 14 canvases at a time. She groups them together in her studio and works on them, moving them around, looking for connections between each of them
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