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| Dead Indian Stories, monoprints |
Visiting Artist Lecture: 5:30pm September 30, 2019 followed by a reception
Greater Denton Arts Council
400 E Hickory St, Denton, TX 76201
Free and open to the public
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds is an artist and an advocate for indigenous communities worldwide. His text-based work includes multidisciplinary forms of public art messages, large-scale drawings, Neuf Series acrylic paintings, prints, works in glass, and monumental porcelain enamel on steel outdoor sculpture. His most recent works address injustices and current views of Native American people, illuminating the struggles within the lives of Native Americans, as well as acknowledging Native Americans’ cultural differences through coupling positive and negatives, the past and the present though language.
“I’ve been doing experimentation with solvents to alter the words, blurring the words,” Heap of Birds said. “I’m attacking the words much like in some ways the social justice in America of Native people is an onslaught. We’re being attacked with poverty, ill health, dysfunction, so I’m doing the same with the prints.” Heap of Birds states, “A lot of Native American existence is suppressed in America, so the dominant culture doesn’t tend to know much about the original people that are here so it’s like a secret.”
His work has been exhibited at some of the most renowned institutions in the world, including The Museum of Modern Art; Orchard Gallery, Northern Ireland; the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations Reservation in Oklahoma; SITE Santa Fe Museum, New Mexico; Grand Palais in Paris, France; and Documenta, Kassal, Germany. His work holds a place in the collections of many museums, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Most recently his work appears in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the British Museum in London; Anchorage Museum in Alaska; and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
In 2012, Heap of Birds was named an USA Ford Fellow, and in 2014 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumni from the University of Kansas. He has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Bonfil Stanton Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, AT&T, Lila Wallace Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Sharing his expertise and talent with the next generation of artists, Heap of Birds has taught at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Capetown, and the University of Oklahoma. Now retired from teaching at the University of Oklahoma after 30 years of service, he continues to serve there as professor emeritus.
For more information about the artist: http://heapofbirds.ou.edu/
Sponsored by:
UNT College of Visual Arts and Design
UNT Dept. of Art Education & Art History
UNT Dept. of English
UNT Dept. of Geography & the Environment
UNT Dept. of History
UNT Dept. of Philosophy & Religion
UNT Dept. of Studio Art
UNT Institute of Applied Sciences
UNT Libraries
UNT Multicultural Center
Greater Denton Arts Council
The UNT Department of Studio Art PLATFORM speaker series invites contemporary artists, critics, and curators whose work is fueled by critical discussions around marginalized voices and narratives. Free and open to the university community and beyond, PLATFORM events work collaborate with other cultural institutions as departments and centers on the UNT campus.
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds' lecture and exhibition is part of the UNT celebration of the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL @ UNT) The United Nations has designated 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages to bring attention to issues of language loss and language revitalization. The IYIL @ UNT committee's event series celebrates indigenous languages and raises awareness concerning the challenges they face due to globalization, modernization, and the legacies of colonialism. It is a transdisciplinary collaboration across multiple colleges and departments at UNT, and links UNT with external partners such as the Fort Worth Museum of Science and Technology, Healing Sacred Voices, and American Indian Heritage Day in Texas. See the full list of events here: https://indigenouslanguages.unt.edu/events.
