Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds

1954 Born in Wichita, KS
1976 B.F.A, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
1979 M.F.A., Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

Currently an associate art professor at the University of Oklahoma, Heap of Birds' practice is distinguished by his sophisticated analysis of language and his appropriation of public spaces such as billboards and city bus panels to disrupt the onslaught of Eurocentric discourse. In addition to his activities as a printmaker, painter, and video artist, Heap of Birds also curates and lectures internationally on Native art and has exhibited extensively in the United States.
In the polyptych (a four panel piece), How Bout Them Cowboys, the artist has used the written word as his medium. The four screened word prints convey a textual message of the constructive and destructive politics of dominant culture which can be read left to right, or, top to bottom. Heap of Birds’ typical use of language in his work adopts the idea of mass communication to deliver his personal observations of social history
Solo exhibitions for Heap of Birds include the Walker Art Center, MN, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY and the San Jose Museum of Art, CA among numerous others. He has participated in a of myriad group exhibitions such as the National American Indian Museum, NY, Contemporary Art Museum, TX, The Massachusetts Contemporary Museum, MA, and The Modern Art Museum, NY.