our INTRO biennial group exhibition is opening today and we are thrilled to introduce the work of 9 artists to the gallery. the artists span from across the country as well as canada and australia. included in the exhibition are paintings by mary henderson, bussie parker kehoe, anne leone, renée levin, daniel o’toole, nick rooney, janna watson along with woven fiber sculptures by hayley sheldon and blown glass + porcelain vases by north carolina artist sarah vaughn. we have spent over two years curating this exhibition so to finally see the works installed on the gallery walls is well worth the wait. we have a feeling you will be as blown away as we are by the creativity on display. thank you to all the artists in the show for letting us be a part of their lives.
anne leone received her bfa in painting at boston university, and mfa from the university of cincinnati. she was born in los angeles, california, and lives and works in new york and massachusetts. she is a professor emeritus of umass dartmouth. awards include massachusetts cultural council fellowship painting finalist, massachusetts cultural council professional development grant as well as a hershey foundation fellowship at millay colony in austerlitz, ny and a leighton fellowship at the banff center for the arts in alberta, canada.
anne leone began using the motif of figures in water as a metaphor for life, purity and birth in 1993. her acrylic paintings explore the ephemera of the light, color and movement in the water of dark, natural ponds. the figures’ faces or expressions cannot be read or identified, because they are above the water. we only see what is revealed beneath the surface. the swimmers experience a multitude of sensations: an awareness of their physicality, the release of gravity, the feeling of water on the skin, and the sense of unrestricted movement.
renée levin, a contemporary oil painter, is best known for her highly rendered paintings and modern depictions of organic material and found objects. with a keen eye for detail, her large-scale paintings are created with a minimalist approach to color, allowing the focus to remain on the subject itself. In her pursuit of perfection, levin skillfully uses bold contrasts in form and subject along with a balance of beauty and imperfection, to create dynamic visual compositions. through creative introspection, she has woven a dialogue in her works that explores the interconnectedness of opposition, proving differences blend seamlessly to create a synchronized balance. since becoming a full-time artist in 2019, levin has developed a signature style that has gained attention worldwide. her work has been placed in numerous private and corporate collections and has received notable press features in magazines such as vogue and veranda.
janna watson is a conceptual painter based in toronto, canada. through her practice, janna works to reframe spirituality from the dogmatic into objects reflecting an embodied spirituality that includes fluidity, agility, and joy. she communicates this by queering the painterly process into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.
beginning with her canvases on the ground, janna approaches each painting without preconceptions of visual direction. composition, colour, and texture are developed intuitively and in direct response to the artist’s emotive and embodied state in that moment. orientation is eschewed entirely. the artist describes her process as a way of moving away from the cognitive realm and toward the spiritual, and her paintings as alternative spaces free from the social structures we are conditioned by. for janna, unlike her art historical predecessors, this practice is not merely a formalist gesture but extends from her experience with speaking in tongues, a ritual practised in the pentecostal religion in which individuals make sounds that resemble speech, often considered to be a divine language unknown to anyone, even the participant. the conceptual structure of this act is mirrored in janna’s painterly practice and acts as an index from her past to her present.
mary henderson is a visual artist living and working in philadelphia. she received an ab in fine arts from amherst college, and an mfa in painting from the university of pennsylvania. she has been awarded grants and fellowships from the pollock-krasner foundation, the joseph robert foundation, the center for emerging artists, and the pennsylvania council on the arts; she has also completed residencies at surf point, pouch cove, soaring gardens, the jentel foundation and the hambidge center (where she was the nena griffith distinguished fellow). her work has been shown throughout the united states at venues including the delaware contemporary museum, the westmoreland museum of american art, the muskegon museum of art, the michener museum and the woodmere museum. selected collections include the rockefeller foundation, the muskegon museum of art and the west collection. henderson is an assistant professor of fine arts at bucks county community college.
nick rooney holds a master of arts in painting from the university of the arts london (camberwell college of arts). early in his career, he focused on refining traditional oil painting techniques while grounding his contemporary work in art history.
rooney’s current practice investigates the tension between geometric minimalism and classical realism. he examines how painting—a single medium—can simultaneously create the illusion of depth and realism while embracing the flatness of shape and form. his compositions often remove classical subjects from familiar settings, placing them in abstracted environments defined by balance, pressure, and transition. the resulting friction between realism and minimalism challenges viewers to reconsider how meaning is constructed.
rooney has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the saatchi gallery and scope miami. his work is part of major collections such as tc energy, the bmo centre, and the jr shaw institute for art at the glenbow museum. he is currently an assistant professor of visual studies at the university of calgary.
sarah vaughn grew up in southern illinois, discovering glass while pursuing a bfa at southern illinois university carbondale. she has been exploring the material ever since. upon graduating, her thesis work was honored as the sole winner of the rickert-ziebold trust award, a prestigious competition for graduating seniors in art and design. her work has been exhibited and collected internationally, receiving numerous accolades, and featured in publications such as emerge 2008 and 2012 and american art collector. she has been a resident artist at the university of oregon, the WORKS museum in ohio, and was the first mfa traveling assistant resident at the chrysler museum glass studio. she was invited to participate in the inaugural residency program at glass wheel studios in norfolk, virginia, where she created work for two years. after receiving her mfa from rochester institute of technology in 2014, she was awarded a research and creativity grant and invited to exhibit at SOFA chicago. she has forged several award-winning collaborative practices with fellow artists and friends. in the fall of 2021, sarah moved to penland school of crafts to be an artist-in-residence. she enjoys life in the mountains, where she spends time with her dog while pursuing new veins of her work and fixing broken rocks.
daniel o'toole, born in sydney, australia in 1984, is a melbourne-based artist known for his multimedia works, including sculptural colour-field paintings, video art, and sound installations. o'toole has studied at national art school; completed a diploma at sae (school of audio engineering). integrating experimental electronic music/soundscapes into his exhibitions and video works, he designs environments for sensory engagement. he has curated community-driven electronic music compilations/events, and participated in artist residencies in germany and france. his video work was shown at the lyon biennale and recent notable commissions include a custom video piece for sydney fashion week, paintings for the louis vuitton store in sydney international airport, and paintings for tiffany and co jewellery stores in sydney and melbourne.
o'toole has staged numerous solo exhibitions and been featured in curated group shows both in australia and internationally. in 2023, o'toole achieved a significant milestone with his first institutional exhibition at benalla art gallery. the immersive and interactive sound installation voices from the void showcasing his ability to engage audiences on a larger scale.
bussie parker kehoe is a san francisco-based mixed-media artist. kehoe’s. found object assemblages combine her need for creative exploration and her lifelong love of hunting for treasures among discarded everyday items. kehoe’s work is all about transformation and reinvention, inviting the viewer to take a second look the previously unwanted or overlooked.
kehoe studied printmaking and drawing at the university of virginia, then put her art practice on pause while she practiced law, started a family, and taught art to preschool-aged children in washington dc. after a couple of family moves, the need to create could not be contained any longer and kehoe opened her first studio in 2017 in winston-salem, north carolina. she now resides in san francisco, ca with her family and works out of her mission district studio.
kehoe’s work has been shown throughout the united states. she has work in the permanent collection of hotel indigo winston-salem.
hayley sheldon strives to blur the boundaries between contemporary, minimalist art and woven, fiber-based handicrafts, in an attempt to elevate methods and traditions often considered to be activities of the domesticated woman, and speak to the viewer in the universal language of color and form. her work finds inspiration from and pays homage to the natural world, while simultaneously giving a defined physical presence to amorphous ideas surrounding joy, loss, tenderness and distant memory. hayley is drawn to the meditative quality found in repetition of movement and gravitates towards this kind of creating.
her current body of work utilizes a catalog of shapes made by sewing directly into wood frames using the fibers to create a translucent color field effect. hayley’s intention is to imbibe the works with a sensation of simple beauty; pulled from the quiet, poetic moments of everyday life.
all available work by each artist can be viewed on our website under their individual tabs including sizing + pricing. hidell brooks gallery is by appointment. please call the gallery if you have any further questions.