This autumn The Hepworth Wakefield presents the first UK solo exhibition of American painter Dana Schutz, featuring 13 new paintings, to be shown for the first time.

Born in 1976 in Livonia, Michigan, Schutz currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She has become renowned for her riotously coloured figurative paintings and highly tactile approach, creating compelling and awkward imaginary worlds that explore hypothetical and sometimes absurd fictive situations, with titles such as Piano in the Rain and Small Apartment.

These paintings also offer pleasurable and provocative insights into contemporary American life and, more widely, the shared human realities of the body, social interaction and our often-contradictory inner feelings.

A new painting entitled Singer Songwriter, 2012, features in the exhibition and depicts a confident musician performing to a to a lone and seemingly self-conscious audience member.

Dana describes the process behind the painting: “I wanted to paint a situation that depicts practice and relates to the process of making a painting. With the recent work I have been drawing, redrawing, wiping out and rebuilding the painting as the paint is still wet. I really want each gesture to have its own space and quality and for the painting to have a certain speed- to feel as though it happened all at once. Also, with all the rebuilding and wiping-out there is a feeling of physically rehearsing the image.”

Simon Wallis, Director of The Hepworth Wakefield said: “I’ve long followed the development of Dana’s work and vividly recall first encountering her paintings at the Venice Biennale in 2003. 10 years on, it’s wonderful to be premiering her new work in Wakefield. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Demo, her first UK solo show, and introducing her work to our wide audience.”

This exhibition will tour to Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany, in the summer of 2014 and will be on display concurrently with the Matthew Darbyshire: W.A Ismay Collection exhibition, Darbyshire’s new outdoor commission for The Hepworth Wakefield and the inaugural show by Roger Hiorns in the gallery’s new contemporary art space, The Calder.

Visitors can enjoy free admission to the exhibitions and displays.