The artworks of Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds include multi-disciplinary forms of public art messages, large scale drawings, neuf series acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture. Heap of Birds’ artistic creations and efforts as an advocate for indigenous communities worldwide are focused first upon social justice and then the personal freedom to live within the tribal circle as an expressive individual.

Edgar Heap of Birds’ art is featured in  “Strange Weather: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation,” on view at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History from April 14-August 14, 2022. The exhibition is organized by the Institute of the Arts and Sciences and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. 

About the speaker

Edgar Heap of Birds

Edgar Heap of Birds has exhibited his works at The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations Reservation, Oklahoma; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Documenta, Kassal, Germany; Orchard Gallery, Derry, Northern Ireland; University Art Museum, Berkeley, California; Association for Visual Arts Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico; Hong Kong Art Center, China; Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia; Grand Palais, Paris, France; Nanyang Technological University Art Gallery, Singapore; and the Venice Biennale, Italy.

The artists’ works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA; Denver Art Museum, CO; Museum of Contemporary Native American Art, Santa Fe, NM; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Harold Washington Library, Chicago, IL; the Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia, Canada; and Simon Fraser University Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Recent collections include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; British Museum, London; Saint Louis Art Museum, MO; Anchorage Museum, AK; and the Library of Congress.

Heap of Birds has studied at the University of Kansas, Lawrence (BFA, 1976), undertaken graduate studies at the Royal College of Art, London (1977) and attended the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia (MFA, 1979).  He was named USA Ford Fellow in 2012 and Distinguished Alumni, University of Kansas, in 2014.  Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts and Letters degrees have been awarded by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston (2008), Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada (2017), and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, (2018).  In 2020, Heap of Birds was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a member of the Humanities & Arts class, with a specialty in Visual Arts. Learn more about the artist and his works at eheapofbirds.com