Name: Heidi Brandow
Born: Provo, UT
Lives and works: Santa Fe, NM
Website: heidikbrandow.com
Instagram: @heidikbrandowart
Adaptation, experimentation, and evolution are all crucial concepts within Heidi Brandow’s practice, which usually takes the form of layers of paint, drawing, and paper on canvas, but also includes a social practice in her photography projects. Her multi-disciplinary work incorporates glossy colors and an experimental, messy approach to materials, challenging Western-imposed definitions of “Native Art.” Brandow writes, “Although often depicted in a past-tense, Native People are alive, thriving, and living alongside everyone else. We can contribute to future generations and society-at-large through invaluable cultural/historical knowledge but also through our current lived experiences.”
Her work is personal and brings humor and strangeness to the foreground. Her best-known series of monsters grew out of the Asian and Japanese influences of her childhood in Hawaii. Brandow seeks for her work to be accessible to many audiences, citing both the Superflat movement and street art as influences.
Brandow received a 2019 Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists. Her work will be on view this year in a solo show at form & concept in Santa Fe (August 30-October 12, 2019), in a solo mural project at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and in Community Through Making from Peru to New Mexico, a group exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe.
