the artist

Daina Higgins

Daina Higgins

Philadelphia, PA

Daina Higgins

http://www.dainahiggins.com

When Daina Higgins moved to Philadelphia, she began to commute by car for the first time in her life.  Her daily commutes took her through the inner-ring suburbs of Philadelphia and she began to document the unsung landscapes of Northeast, Northwest, and South Philadelphia in her paintings.  As a painter of the urban landscape, her eye is drawn to the “non-places” and “unheroic landscapes” not visited by tourists or beauty seekers.  For Higgins, the car is itself a type of non-space within a suburban non-place, where life is reduced to essentials.  Still, there is a visual interest in the way light reflects off shop windows and car windshields in the sparkling world of the auto-centric main drag.  It is this type of everyday world that is heroic to Higgins.  North Philly, South Philly, A Day in Venice, and For Sale capture the isolation and contemplation that car travel provides.

Fast Facts

Name: Daina Higgins

Website: www.dainahiggins.com

Place of Birth: Columbus, Ohio

Education:
School of Visual Arts, 2001, BFA
Queens College City University of New York, 2009, MFA

Notable or memorable instructors or mentors:
Melissa Meyer

Particular field of study or class work:
Urban landscapes

Major influences/admired artists:
William Eggleston
Edward Hopper
Raymond Carver
Eugene Atget
Valeri Larko
Rackstraw Downes
John Moore
Steve Powers

Favorite materials or media:
Oil paint
Spray paint
Watercolor
Photography

Gallery Representation (when Convention Center acquired artwork):
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York
Joseph Editions, Columbus, Ohio

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