Career
Her trompe-l"oeil style realistically imagines the impact of natural and man-made disasters on treasured cultural objects as a way of considering the darker side of American society and the damages wrought through its history. In producing these works, Hagerty uses fire, water, guns, and a variety of natural forces, like earthquakes and woodpeckers, to distress her carefully constructed fictitious objects. In early solo shows at Guild & Greyshkul gallery, she filled the entire space with sculpted vegetation and shipwrecked seascapes.
Foreign a 2010 exhibition at Nicelle Beauchene, she played off well-known works by modern masters, Sol LeWitt, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, with LeWitt box-sculptures that looked torched, a steel-crumpled splatter painting, and a shredded 3-Doctorate foamcore and canvas Rothko.
Reviewing this exhibition, critic Claire Barliant wrote: "In targeting Rothko"s sanctified reputation, Hegarty brings her hero back to earth, reminding us that "genius," "purity" and "heroism" were qualities that came at a price." In Altered States, a 2012 solo exhibition at Marlborough gallery, Hegarty returned to shipwrecks and large scale installations, juxtaposing barnacle-encrusted colonial-era ships and sinking paintings with a charred and torn version of Gilbert Stuart"s iconic portrait of George Washington. Her engagement with American history continued in Alternative Histories at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013, where she created site-specific interventions in the museum"s period rooms.
In an interview about this project, Hegarty stated, "With all the rooms I wanted to comment on certain aspects of American history that aren’t highlighted..They’re all European settler rooms, but they’re not really showing the darker side, which I guess is what I always do.”
Hegarty attended Middlebury College where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, the Academy of Art College where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree. Hegarty has had several solo exhibitions in galleries and public institutions, as well as participating in numerous group exhibitions, has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships,and has work in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Foreign 2014-2015 she was the Andrew West. Mellon Artist-in-Residence at Drew University.