Tess Bilhartz
Now You See Me
February 4 - March 1, 2025

Deanna Evans Projects is pleased to present Now You See Me, a solo exhibition of new works by Tess Bilhartz. This will be her first solo exhibition with the gallery, first in the new space, and will be on view from February 4 - March 1, 2025 at 370 Broadway.

These landscapes, in one way or another, are haunted. A ghost appears frequently as either a shadowy presence or a figure whose edges dissolve into its natural surroundings. Other hauntings emerge through a fossilized absence; a handprint or a crater. Some screech into form with psychedelic color that abrades the landscape. But, they all reach out for connection.

The kaleidoscopic bundling of imagery and compressions of time respond to that of our contemporary life. A self that is divided between digital delights and nightmares. Punctuated by the constant dinging reminders, pinging hellos, and the ghosts of photo memories. Bilhartz’s work does not seek to represent this in an aesthetic sense, but instead in a fundamental response to the sensation of being alive in this moment of profound connection and disconnection. Moments are warped, filtered, and then smeared with a finger.

All the works are haunted with memory, longing, and sometimes grief that evade physical grasp and dissolve into a fractured haze. 

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Tess Bilhartz grew up in Dallas, Texas and currently lives and works in New York City where she teaches art at Borough of Manhattan Community College - CUNY. Recent solo exhibitions include  ‘What on Earth’ at Below Grand (2020) and ‘Follow Me Down’ at Rubber Factory (2022), which was reviewed in the Brooklyn Rail and BOMB magazine. Her work has also been exhibited at Embajada, San Juan, PR, Primary, Miami, FL, and Island, New York, NY. Residencies include the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2017), and the Sharpe Walentas Space Program (2013).

Press:
Yale University Radio Interview