Christy Hengst Artist Talk

Christy Hengst’s work ranges from community-oriented public art projects across several countries to intimate studio paintings created in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Shortly after graduating from Amherst College in 1989, Hengst traveled westward to Santa Fe, where she met her future husband and creative collaborator, German blacksmith Helmut Hillenkamp. Together they have collaborated on numerous public and private endeavors. Hengst's site-specific public art installations include three bus stop shelters in Santa Fe, a collaborative plaza sculpture with a volcano in Ecuador, two Haiku paths, a climate change-focused playground boat, the four-year traveling international installation Birds in the Park, and the clandestine, map-linked project Art in the Loo. Her paintings layer printmaking, drawing, encaustic, porcelain, and text. They have been exhibited at galleries and museums internationally, including solo shows at Ellsworth Gallery, Box Gallery, and El Zaguán in Santa Fe; the BBK Gallery in Aachen, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art in Cuenca, Ecuador; the Museum of Fine Arts in Las Cruces, NM; and the IX Bienal of Painting in Ecuador. Her creative investigation into present-moment awareness and sensing is deeply informed by a long-term meditation practice.