FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

See Line Gallery is honored to present Edgar Heap of Birds a multi-disciplinary artist whose work ranges
from conceptual public art messages to paintings, prints, and monumental sculpture. Heap of Birds was
one of a small group of artists whose seminal work in the 1980s in the New York art scene defined the
pluralistic and sophisticated direction of Native art which continues to this day. His work frequently draws
upon language (in form and content), history, and memory, and engages audiences in a dialogue about
forgotten or subversive relationships

Moving with the Storm presents two bodies of work communicated in aggressive multi-colored pastel text
drawing installations on rag paper. The gesture of hand in both sets of words remain true and aligned in a
mark of percussion.

In “American Policy” the tinted strokes, driven by active music, originate from instances of violence
occurring during the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, from the swords and guns of the 19th century U.S.
Calvary and militia. Native American suffering is mourned through the likened drumbeat of each pastel mark
hitting the paper.

To interpret history and begin by attempting to clear the air is a necessity for today’s artwork to have credence.
Although residue of American violence against Native people is still with us this storm of brutality must pass.

After it is partially reflected in drawings it becomes important to delve into one’s self and enjoy sources of
personal witnessing. These special notions and private events should be proclaimed and imaged with the
same energy as political discourse. We often neglect the need to investigate individual priorities, humor
and sensuality when considering Native American themes in the arts.

The second body of pastel drawings reclaim these missed concerns. The spirit of a storm may be turbulent
or renewing depending upon ones outlook. Everyone must decide whether to fight the wind or flow with the
rain. Taking pleasure and dancing in each mood of the tempest shall sing the shifting equilibrium of this world.

Heap of Birds has exhibited his work at The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (New York), the National Gallery of Canada
(Ottawa, Canada), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, Australia), Documenta (Kassel, Germany),
Association for Visual Arts Museum (Cape Town, South Africa), and numerous other galleries and museums
in the United States and international arts community. His work has been featured in a host of publications,
including Art Journal, Third Text, Art Forum International, Vampire in the Text: Narratives of Contemporary
Art (Jean Fisher, 2003), The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society (Lucy Lippard, 1997),
and Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-95, (Museum of Modern Art, 1996). Heap of Birds received his
Master of Fine Arts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia (1979), his Bachelor of Fine Arts
from the University of Kansas (1976), and attended the Royal College of Art, London. He has received grants
and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation,
Lila Wallace Foundation, Bonfil Stanton Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trust. Heap of Birds, a Cheyenne
and Arapaho artist is currently a professor at the University of Oklahoma and recently participated in the 52nd
Venice Biennale, Venice Italy.