Alexander/Heath Contemporary
is pleased to announce
an exhibition by D.C. painter
VICKY PERRY
“A Series of Dreams”
November 6 through December 18, 2026
OPENING RECEPTIONS:
Art-by-Night Friday, November 6, 2026, 6-9 pm
Art-by-Night Friday, December 4, 2026, 6-9 pm
CLOSING RECEPTION:
Friday, December 18th, 2026, 6-9 pm
Artist Statement:
My paintings begin with my own photographs. Every source image comes from my travels; nothing is borrowed or stock. I shoot with the paintings in mind, looking for the raw material of a composition: a particular quality of light on water, the way a bloom holds itself, a monument at an unexpected angle. Back in the studio, I compose digitally, layering and shifting these photographs until the relationships between elements resonate. Only then do I move to oil on canvas, panel, or linen, building layers from a projected sketch from the computer.
I hold a master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in artificial intelligence. I understand what AI can and cannot do and I deliberately seek a final product that is beyond its reach. The combination of personal photographic source material, intuitive compositional judgment developed over forty years, and the irreducible physicality of oil paint produces images that no generative system could arrive at. That is not incidental to the work. It is the point.
Central to that point is the human hand. I am interested in what the hand can and cannot do . Where does it succeeds in creating verisimilitude and where does it falls short, where does the paint do something unexpected and where does it refuse? That frailty is not a problem to be solved. It is what separates a painting from a mechanical reproduction. A print or a digital output can approach perfection. A painting carries the evidence of a person trying—and that trying is the core of my work as it shows the unstoppable love of the act of painting.
Vicky Perry / vickyperry.com
The exhibition is on display through Friday, December 18, 2026.
Access is available during exhibition hours or by appointment only:
Contact Ed Hettig:
hettig@alexander-heath.com or text 607.226.2473.