STATEMENT

Through paintings, prints, and drawings, Hepner constructs autobiographical images that capture scenes of humanity and intimacy. Living in small apartments, she questions the intimacy of physical proximity: Is there constant interaction? Is there organic separation? She uses her work as vignettes: stories being told through interaction of bodies or lack thereof. She plays with questioning self as an animal in a body, thinking about things that liken and distinguish humans from other living beings. Hepner also explores shared space as a subset of feminist resilience (where the act of sharing space is one of care and collective strength) and attempts to celebrate intimacy while desexualizing it. In this way, she gives agency to the intimacy of the everyday. The reality of living in the same space as others can become romantic. Her work is representational, and almost always figurative. She draws directly from lived experience, but occasionally crosses into non-representational images when painting from fantasies. Body, touch, and lack of touch are problems waiting to be solved in her work.

CV

  • Born Brooklyn, NY

Education

  • 2025-2027: Yale University M.F.A. Candidate (expected graduation 2027)

  • 2018: Carnegie Mellon University B.H.A. (Bachelor of Humanities and Arts) Global Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Painting

  • 2016 Fall: Universidad de La Habana

  • 2012, 2013 Summer: School of the Art Institute of Chicago Pre-College Program

Awards/Grants

  • 2018 Phi Sigma Iota- Carnegie Mellon University

  • 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Early Initiate- Carnegie Mellon University

  • 2017 Student Undergraduate Research Grant- Carnegie Mellon University

  • 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Fund- Carnegie Mellon University

  • 2017 BXA Small Grant- Carnegie Mellon University

Exhibitions/Publications

  • 2025 Heatstroke, Gallery Art &, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2025 Double Dare Ya (Group Show), Citrus Gallery, Syracuse, NY

  • 2025 Touching Spells, Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2024 Cover Art for Community Listening Journal

  • 2024 Twelve by Twelve (Group Show), Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2024 Contemporary Realism (Group Show), Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2024 Small Works Show (Group Show), 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 

  • 2024 The Other Art Fair, Zero Space, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2024 Diaspora (Group Show), Perth Amboy Center for the Arts, Perth Amboy, NJ

  • 2023 THE LOUDNESS OF SILENCE (Group Show), Cicada Curatorial, Online Gallery

  • 2023 The Other Art Fair, Zero Space, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2023 Nocturne (Group Show), 345 Gallery, Manhattan, NY

  • 2022 “Six Artists I Discovered at Gowanus Open Studios”, Hyperallergic Magazine 

  • 2022 New Contemporaries (Group Show), Dodomu Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2022 Artist of the Month, Camelback Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

  • 2022 Polysemy Gala: Dual Meanings In Contemporary Art (Group Show), Culturally Arts Collective, Austin, TX

  • 2022 Neighbors (Group Show), Brooklyn Neighborhood Arts, Brooklyn, NY

  • 2020 The Feminine Agenda (Group Show), Women’s Work Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY

  • 2020 Ritual, Art Obscura, Las Cruces, NM

  • 2019 Print Show, Unsettled Gallery, Las Cruces, NM

  • 2019 In Between Trips to the Bathroom, Late Space, Pittsburgh, PA

  • 2018 Cover Art for Community Literacy Journal, Issue 13.1, Fall: Special Issue on Community Listening

  • 2018 Dot Gov: CMU Senior Group Show, Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

  • 2018 The line goes on and on, Frame Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

  • 2017 90: Impressions of Cuba, Frame Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA