Hilary Pecis’s vivid paintings, drawings and prints challenge the traditional genres of still life and landscape. She manipulates perspectives, exaggerates colors and combines busy patterns. Pecis is inspired by the exterior and interior spaces that are part of her daily life. Her works are based on photographs that she shoots on her mobile phone while on outings in her Los Angeles neighborhood or while traveling. She uses these images as guidelines but takes substantial liberties, meticulously arranging compositional elements.
The subject of ‘Bakery Display’ (2025) is a display case in Greenpoint, Brooklyn featuring groupings of tantalizing desserts. These enticing confections include colorful fruit tarts, flan soaked in caramel sauce and black forest cake slices adorned with whipped cream and cherries, all carefully arranged to create a seductive pattern. The work pays homage to the delicacies depicted by Wayne Thiebaud, another California painter who documented everyday American life. Raised in Northern California, Pecis learned about art from her mother’s calendars, which highlighted regional artists such as Thiebaud. Unlike Thiebaud’s desserts, typically set in anonymous, cream-colored spaces, Pecis delights in contextual details—the ventilation slits in the display cooler, for instance, form a rhythmic line across the bottom of the composition.