Opening March 21: "Light Matter" by Nancy Burson

You are invited to Nancy Burson’s solo exhibition reception on Saturday March 21st from 5-8pm at 300 Broome St.

We’re excited to present Heft’s next solo exhibition, featuring pioneering artist Nancy Burson, internationally known as the inventor of facial morphing through her groundbreaking collaboration with MIT Media Lab in the late 1970s.

Burson’s early photographic composites—created using her patented triangular grid system—laid the foundation for technologies that today inform AI-driven facial recognition and digital filters, and can be found in the permanent collections of MoMA, The Whitney, The Met, LACMA, SFMOMA, V&A, Centre Pompidou, and more. Rooted in the belief that “we are all composites,” her work has long explored interconnectedness across ancestry and time.

Her Quantum Entanglement Paintings extend that inquiry into the realm of quantum physics. Composed of thousands of paired dots representing entangled particles, the works draw on emergent behavior patterns found in nature from the swarming of birds to the distribution of stars across galaxies. Inspired by what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance,” the paintings explore the invisible relationships that unify matter across space.

These largely black-and-white works are meant to be experienced through digital recording. When viewed through a phone camera, the paintings appear to pulse and change color, inviting viewers to witness what Burson describes as photon-based phenomena emerging through the interaction of light and electronics. She calls this process photon-ography: light in the form of photons + digital electronics.

We look forward to seeing you on March 21.