Exhibitions & CV
Education & Mentorship
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Denise Hillman’s paintings explore the intersection of memory, place, transitions, and the accumulated impressions of experience. She describes her approach as “Experiential Abstraction,” transforming these influences visually through color, gesture, shape, and layered surfaces. Drawing on the traditions of Abstract Expressionism and Bay Area Figurative painting, her work moves between pure abstraction and traces of the visible world. Hillman’s paintings are less about what she has seen than what has lingered or shifted, leaving space for viewers to discover their own associations, memories, and meanings within the work.
Hillman is a California-based painter whose work has evolved from figurative and representational painting toward increasingly expressive abstraction. Her years in marketing and advertising helped shape the way she approaches creative work—identifying what matters, making deliberate choices, and understanding that the viewer is part of the equation. Her work is influenced by artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, particularly David Park and Richard Diebenkorn, as well as Abstract Expressionists such as Joan Mitchell and Willem de Kooning. Over time, these varied influences have helped shape her own distinctive approach to painting.Her work has been exhibited in California and Arizona and is held in private collections. |