Hilary Pecis
Love Letters
David Kordansky Gallery
May 16 – June 20, 2026
Hilary Pecis’s stunning exhibition of new work at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles sees her returning to the familiar, while also ambitiously expanding the scope of her work. Pecis’ works are uniquely of California and often speak to the landscape and the content of creative lives in Los Angeles.The exhibition contains canvases of bright colors, flattened perspective, bouquets of flowers, and book-filled rooms, all of which are signature elements of Pecis’ work, and which recall the work of Matisse, or Cezanne’s paintings of flowers and fruit bowls. Yet her work is more descriptive and precise, in sharper focus, in ways that recall the works of Grandma Moses.
The exhibition press release describes Pecis’ work as “vivid odes of affinity,” and in this exhibition we easily project her personal connection to the objects and images she paints, which draws us in, creating a connection of our own.
Hilary Pecis, Pool, 2026, acrylic on linen, 92 x 77 x 1 5/8 inch (233.7 x 195.6 x 4.1 cm) Photo: Jeff McLane Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
When I spoke with Pecis at the opening, she told me that the exhibition is named Love Letters because when she looked at all the disparate subjects, what they shared was that they were all of people, places and things she loves and that have special meaning to her.
Many of the paintings carry a personal charge, such as Mt. Shasta, in which we see two backpacks ready to be taken on a hike which Pecis explained was meant to conjure her father with whom she hiked often, including a hike up Mt. Shasta; Medals, in which awards won in running races hang on hooks on a wall; or Yacht Club which features the signage for a Bay Area boating club. There are backyards and painting studios that feel as though they are about to be used. And, although there are rarely people in Pecis’s work, Picnic gives us the hands and torsos of two people sitting at a food-laden table.
Hilary Pecis, Mt. Shasta, 2025, acrylic on linen, 74 x 64 x 1 1/2 inches (188 x 162.6 x 3.8 cm) Photo: Paloma Dooley. Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
There is something deceptively simple about Pecis’ work. It’s like how ballerinas need incredible strength and technique to make what they do on stage look light, simple and easy – to float across the stage. Pecis’ works are solutions to really complex issues of color and perspective that Pecis manages to make look easy.
That complexity is not always obvious. At the opening, I was standing next to a sculptor who told me that although he liked the colors Pecis uses, he didn’t get what was so special about her work. We talked about how there was often this notion that for art to be taken seriously it couldn’t be joyous and that bright colors and domestic scenes were often dismissed as decorative or design-like. Pecis’ work makes the case against that traditional notion so successfully that we now see other artists making similar works. That Pecis is prominent among them is one reason her work is so valued.
Hilary Pecis, Picnic, 2026. acrylic on linen, 92 x 77 x 1 5/8 inches (233.7 x 195.6 x 4.1 cm). Photo: Jeff McLane, Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
Pecis’ latest work is perhaps the best evidence of her growing talent, artistic ambition, and mastery. Target Canyon, a large painting in the main room against the back wall, is a landscape or view of homes looking out to mountains and sky, with tree branches and leaves in the foreground, and palm trees amid the landscape. I can’t say whether the blackened trees and leaves and pink sky are meant to speak to the Altadena fires– and if you asked me about Pecis’ work, this landscape is not what would necessarily come to mind. However, there is something that is hypnotizing and breathtaking.
It may be excessive to call this work a masterpiece, but it strikes me as one — a major advance in Pecis’ work, and a signal that she is continuing to grow as an artist and to expand her practice. Perhaps the simple answer is that what makes Love Letters so appealing is that we can see what Pecis loves in her work.
Cover image: Hilary Pecis, Target Canyon, 2026, acrylic on linen100 x 140 x 1 5/8 inches(254 x 355.6 x 4.1 cm) Photo: Jeff McLane Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
