Paul Heyer (American, b. 1982) creates paintings that explore the moments just before life and right after death. He is interested in being liberated from the body and the playful malleability of all forms. There is a quiet ecstasy in his insistence that imagination is reality.

Taking cues from the Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco, 1990s rave culture, and the humble objects of daily life, Heyer meditates on what it means to be free from the limits of our physical and perceived bodies. For him, no body or worldview is stable.

This is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States and his first exhibition in his hometown of Chicago.

This exhibition is organized by Erin Toale, Curatorial Assistant, and Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It is presented in the Dr. Paul and Dorie Sternberg Family Gallery and Ed and Jackie Rabin Gallery on the museum’s third floor.