Heidi Brueckner is a Professor of Art at West Valley College in Saratoga, California
where she has taught painting, drawing, and design for over 20 years.
A native Californian, Brueckner studied at the University of Heidelberg and The Goethe
Institute in Germany in the late 1980s. During this pivotal year, she was able to visit the
major museums of Europe and found herself heavily influenced artistically by 20 th
century German art.
Brueckner received a BA in Fine Art and a BA in Art History from University of
California, Santa Cruz in 1991. She received an MFA in Painting from University of
Kansas in 1997.
Professor Brueckner’s work has been shown at museums, galleries, colleges, and in
publications nationally and internationally. She has received several awards and
scholarships for her work.
In 2018, she published the book “Monsterbet”, a series of 26 oil, acrylic, and mixed
media paintings based on the format of a children’s alphabet book. The book is available
for purchase at Etsy, Amazon, and at her website heidibrueckner.com.
Most recently, she was awarded 1 st Place in the international Italian art competition,
Prisma Art Prize. Upcoming 2021-22 solo exhibitions include GearBox Gallery in
Oakland, California; Art Show International, online; Buckham Gallery in Flint,
Michigan; Gallery 118, online; and East Central College Art Gallery in Union, Missouri.
She currently lives and works in Oakland, California.
People are in interested in people, whether it is because of their personality traits, actions,
or outward appearance. My work is inspired by this curiosity and allows the viewer to be
a part of the observation.
I think of my portraits as individualistic narratives which explore personage through self-
presentation, facial expressions, and gesture. The work often inspects the under-revered,
and appreciates the subject’s presence and dignity, giving pause to honor the person.
Since the pandemic, I have worked solely on the subject because I’ve missed people and
feel the need to study their faces and expressions. This series includes friends, family,
and people I have met through traveling.
The paintings seem to require, and in fact dictate an expressive use of paint and frontal,
almost discomforting and intrusive compositions to achieve psychological expression. I
revel in playing with symbolism, mixed media, heavy texture; bright, invented color;
elaborate patterning; exaggerated space; and distortion in order to enhance visual activity
and conceptual impact.
