Draft:Heidi Howard

Howard was born and raised in Queens, New York, into a family of artists—their mother, Liz Phillips, is a pioneering sound artist, and their father, Earl Howard, is a composer and saxophonist. Howard studied at Reed College and Sarah Lawrence College. During their undergraduate years, Howard also studied in Italy at Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence and the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice. In 2014, they completed their MFA at Columbia University School of the Arts.{{Cite web |title=Heidi Howard |url=https://artists-studios.com/heidi-howard/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=AS {{!}} ARTISTS STUDIOS |language=en-US}}

Heidi originally was in the Bronx Science school that primarily focused on Math and Science. During the commutes to and from Bronx she was captivated by the Metropolitan Museum of New York. This helped her start the look at contemporary art and paved the drive in order to find art openings and start the process of her education in the art world. {{Cite news |title=Meet Heidi Howard |url=https://canvasrebel.com/meet-heidi-howard/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250311073536/https://canvasrebel.com/meet-heidi-howard/ |archive-date=2025-03-11 |access-date=2025-05-29 |language=en-US}}

Artistic Practice

Howard is best known for their intimate, color-saturated portraits that often depict friends, fellow artists, and collaborators. They typically paint their subjects from life, allowing the energy, style, and personality of each sitter to shape the composition.{{Cite web |title=Heidi Howard {{!}} ROOTS RUN GOLD TO PINK - Exhibitions - Gaa Gallery |url=https://gaa-gallery.com/exhibitions/heidi-howard-roots-run-gold-to-pink |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=gaa-gallery.com |language=en}} Howard's approach blends figuration with abstraction, frequently incorporating patterned backgrounds and floral motifs that evoke the influence of artists like Bonnard, Matisse, Hockney, and Peyton.{{Cite web |title=Heidi Howard |url=https://artists-studios.com/heidi-howard/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=AS {{!}} ARTISTS STUDIOS |language=en-US}}

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Howard's work extends beyond traditional portraiture into collaborative, site-specific installations. In 2018, Howard partnered with their mother, Liz Phillips, on "Relative Fields in a Garden," a multimedia installation at the Queens Museum.{{Cite web |last=Museum |first=Queens |title=Queens Museum {{!}} Relative Fields in a Garden |url=https://queensmuseum.org/exhibition/relative-fields-in-a-garden/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=Queens Museum {{!}} Relative Fields in a Garden |language=en-US}} This project combined Howard's large-scale paintings with Phillips' interactive soundscapes, creating a sensory experience that explored themes of intergenerational connection and the natural world.

In 2023, Howard collaborated with their partner, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, and Liz Phillips on "Light from Water," an exhibition at Wave Hill in the Bronx. The show featured paintings, sculptures, and sound installations that emphasized themes of reciprocity, interconnection, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Howard's portraits in the exhibition depicted female and gender-nonconforming creators, rendered with dense patterns, gestural lines, and saturated colors.{{Cite web |date=2024-07-29 |title=Light from Water: Heidi Howard & Esteban Cabeza de Baca, with Liz Phillips {{!}} The Brooklyn Rail |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2023/09/artseen/Light-from-Water-Heidi-Howard-Esteban-Cabeza-de-Baca-with-Liz-Phillips/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=brooklynrail.org |language=en}}

Howard has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. Notable solo and two-person exhibitions include:

• "Colors Make Us Do Vibrant Deeds!" (2024) at the Leroy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York, NY.
• "Exchange Place Portraits" (2022) in Jersey City, NJ​
• "Like Water For Faces" (2019) at Continuo, Amsterdam, Netherlands​
• "Roots Run Gold to Pink" (2019) at Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, MA
• "Woven Traits" (2017) and "Portrait and Dream" (2015) at Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY​

Their group exhibitions include shows at James Cohan Gallery, the Hunterdon Museum of Art, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. Howard has also participated in residencies at the Rauschenberg Residency (2020), Palazzo Monti (2018), and Byrdcliffe (2014), among others.{{Cite web |title=ABOUT - HEIDI HOWARD |url=https://www.heidihoward.net/PROJECTS/ABOUT |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=www.heidihoward.net |language=en}}

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Howard embraced plein air painting, creating portraits outdoors in public spaces from Prospect Park to Taos, New Mexico.{{Cite web |last=Kazanjian |first=Dodie |date=2021-09-15 |title=Many Artists Began Painting Outside During the Pandemic—And They Might Never Go Back Inside |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/plein-air-pandemic-painting |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}} This shift allowed them to maintain artistic practice while engaging with their subjects in new, open-air contexts.

In 2024, Howard released their first monograph, "Colors Make Us Do Vibrant Deeds!," a collaborative project with designer M.H. Orfanos.{{Cite web |title=Heidi Howard |url=https://www.phoebe-press.com/bio |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=PHOEBE PRESS |language=en}} The book features reproductions of Howard's work alongside writings by various authors, offering insights into their creative process and artistic philosophy.

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