Marie Heilich

California, USA
Writing
Artist in Residence, 2026
↗ marieheilich.com

Artist Statement

I’m a writer and curator working in archival and artist-centered contexts, often in close dialogue with artists who engage the history of painting, new media, conceptual strategies, and social concerns. I’m interested in the formation of artistic methods and the structures that mediate them with a focus on how artworks respond to the the systems through which they circulate. My work brings historical and contemporary practices into contact to consider how meaning is produced, managed, and readdressed over time.

While at Headlands

I’m working on a book dedicated to the critical and archival revival of Jacqueline Johnson (1905–1976), poet, theorist, art writer, environmental activist, and co-architect of the Bay Area’s Dynaton circle. The project positions Johnson as a vital link between mid-century post-Surrealism and early ecological thought, centering her contributions to ideas of perception, possibility, and the transformation of awareness. Through historical material, psychic traces in the local environment, and dialogue with scholars and artists, I aim to bring Johnson into sharper contemporary focus while restoring her to the history of postwar art, ecological consciousness, and aesthetic cosmogony.

Selected Work