Professor Julie Heffernan Featured in Solo Exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern
Posted in: College News and Announcements, Department of Art and Design News
Julie Heffernan, Professor in the Department of Art and Design, is featured in Nutmeg’s Curse, her second solo exhibition with Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York City. Across six new paintings, Heffernan engages the tradition of the Old Masters to explore contemporary concerns surrounded identity, the body, and ecological anxiety about the future of the natural world. Drawing inspiration from Northern Renaissance artists, Dutch still-life painting, the Hudson River School, mythology, literature, and the Catholic iconography of her upbringing, the exhibition reflects Heffernan’s signature blend of historical reference and contemporary social commentary.
The exhibition takes its title from Amitav Ghosh’s book Nutmeg’s Curse, which examines the lasting impact of colonialism and the spice trade in relation to today’s climate crisis. Influenced by Ghosh’s critique, Heffernan revisits the Dutch still-life tradition through monumental floral compositions filled with vivid color and expressive brushwork. Roses, tulips, poppies, and peonies erupt across the canvases in scene that shift between beauty and catastrophe.
Known for incorporating self-portraiture into her paintings, Heffernan departs from that approach in Nutmeg’s Curse, allowing the monumental blooms themselves to stand in as witnesses to environmental and human devastation. The exhibition continues her ongoing exploration of art history, environmental instability, and the role of painting as a call to awareness and action.