Frieze Abu Dhabi 2026: Hilary Pecis

Timothy Taylor is pleased to participate in the inaugural edition of Frieze Abu Dhabi with a solo presentation of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Hilary Pecis. The presentation comprises ten canvases depicting everyday scenes of California life, animated by prismatic colour and vivid pattern.  

In Pecis’s paintings of landscapes and interiors, surprising chromatic relationships and subtle distortions of perspective send the viewer’s eye roving. The idiosyncratic arrangement of objects and traces of everyday activity suggest intimate relationships and understated narratives, set against golden-pink tones of California light. Working from photographs and memory, Pecis amplifies and abstracts aspects of her scenes to convey the sensory experience of viewing them, transforming places we might easily overlook.

Five works depict tablescapes populated by vases of flowers and other personal effects. Breakfast Table (all works 2026), for example, captures the rhythms and fleeting arrangements of a morning routine. A haphazardly placed pencil and sheet music sit on either side of a plate of sliced pineapple and a mug of coffee, all laid out on a plaid tablecloth. A vase of hibiscus flowers, a royal-blue bowl of citrus, and a houseplant with variegated leaves complete the scene, recalling the particular pleasures of domestic life. Three of these tablescapes focus on bouquets and their vessels, still lifes defined by their abundance. Two small-scale floral paintings offer contrasting sensibilities. In Elliot’s Flowers, drooping tulips, crinoline-like ranunculi, and perky delphiniums spring forth from a technicolour vase atop a baby-blue paisley patterned tablecloth. Celebration, by contrast, features a similarly plentiful arrangement, but the sleeker lines of lilies and pillowy marigolds, set against a black cloth, produce a markedly different effect. Elsewhere, two larger canvases offer glimpses into living rooms where a salon-style arrangement of paintings, a slouching stack of records, or a pile of books suggests the interests and habits of those who inhabit these spaces. 

Three large-scale landscapes feature seemingly unremarkable locations that caught Pecis’s attention for their particular interplay of colour and form—places where the lace-like silhouette of a tree’s branches against a mountainous horizon, for instance, takes precedence over the surrounding context.

El Prieto depicts a stretch of trail through a canyon near Altadena, California, where stones, sand, and dusty vegetation take on a cinematic quality beneath flat, moody light. In Pink Reflection, a mauve and fuchsia sunset shimmers across a rippling pond, with greenery, palms, and residential development beyond. Together, the paintings reveal Pecis’s attention to the unexpected visual complexity of familiar landscapes.