Heidi Brandow | New Works
August 16- October 12, 2019
Opening Reception: Friday, August 16, 5-7 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, August 17, 2-3 pm
After a banner year, Santa Fe artist Heidi Brandow debuts a new series of whimsical characters and monsters on a large scale.
Santa Fe, NM—“I knew from an early age that our native identity is so rich that we shouldn’t just hold it to a specific ceremony or spiritual practice,” says Santa Fe artist Heidi Brandow. “In my eyes, art is a tool that helps mark history, time, place and memory. Who’s to say pop culture are not equally as important as star sticks?”
Hailing from a long line of Native Hawaiian singers, musicians and performers on her mother’s side and Diné storytellers and medicine people on her father’s side, her artistic career came naturally. Brandow draws inspiration from everyday life and international travels, distilling a myriad of cultural influences into powerful—yet playful—creations. By questioning authority and deconstructing mainstream assumptions of Native Amercans, Brandow’s work concerns discovering, defining, and redefining personal identity.
“The simple fact that I’m Native and that this is the work that I’m making, there’s no way of denying my heritage and my experience, or saying that it’s not implicitly in the work,” Brandow explains. Her work concerns discovering, defining, and redefining personal identity by questioning authority and deconstructing mainstream assumptions of Native Americans.
Brandow’s oeuvre includes socially engaging murals, video art, and digital design—but her paintings most commonly feature playful monsters against colorful backdrops and paper collages she collected during her international travels. She spends most of her time abroad in Turkey, where she was the keynote speaker at the American Studies Association of Turkey 39th International American Studies Conference.
In the past year, Brandow has begun a Master of Design at Harvard University, earned a Native American Artist Fellowship Residency & Group Exhibition from UCross, and was named one of the 12 New Mexico Artists to Know by THE Magazine.
