Hilary Pecis (b. 1979, Fullerton, California) makes paintings and drawings in which tableaus rich with interlocking fields of saturated color, geometric patterning, and bold linework provide views of sun-drenched domestic still lifes and landscape environments. Books crowding a coffee table, the remains of a dinner party, and terrains lush with Southern California succulents make frequent appearances in her work; these meticulously arranged interiors and vibrantly rendered exteriors amount to an overarching portrait of the self that identifies objects and locations as signifiers for human characteristics. Pecis combines distorted perspectives and surprising juxtapositions of hue, placing her work in dialogue with modernist art historical movements like Fauvism in which subjective and analytical tendencies are synthesized. At the same time, her interest in images sourced from her personal experience allows her to transform recognizable mise-en-scènes into vivid explorations that celebrate the quiet moments of everyday life.

Hilary Pecis has been the subject of solo exhibitions at TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China (2023); Rockefeller Center, New York (2021); and Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Map Reading of Painting, Daegu Art Museum, Korea (2024); Day for Night: New American Realism, Palazzo Barberini, organized by the Aïshti Foundation, Rome (2024); A Journey, Yuz Museum, Shanghai 2023); The Interior Life: Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2023); 13 Women: Variation I, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California (2022­–2023); Common Ground: UCCA 15th Anniversary Patrons Collection Exhibition, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2022); Present Generations: Creating the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (2021); FEEDBACK, The School at Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, New York (2021); L.A.: Views, Maki Gallery, Tokyo (2020); and High Voltage, The Nassima-Landau Project, Tel Aviv, Israel (2020). Her work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Palm Springs Art Museum, California; and Aïshti Foundation, Beirut. Pecis lives and works in Los Angeles.