On one of the city’s few recent sunny afternoons, I drove past Oklahoma Contemporary and spotted two kids playing basketball in Campbell Art Park, 11 NW 11th St.
The courts had recently been painted in splashes of pinks, yellows and rust reds. The kids, darting across just-dried colors, probably didn’t know they were standing on one of Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds’ newest pieces of artwork, “Neufs for Oklahoma Autumn.”
Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) is a local art treasure world-renowned for his Neufs series as well as his text-based artwork calling attention to Indigenous issues and sovereignty. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, lived internationally and is currently settled in Oklahoma. He received his bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Kansas, studied painting at the Royal College of Art in London and received a master of fine arts degree from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University.
Teaching is a huge part of his work, too. He taught at the University of Oklahoma (OU) for 30 years and has lectured in over a dozen countries at various schools (Yale University included). His work appears in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Tate Modern. He’s been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received numerous honors throughout his career, all while maintaining his home base here.
Artistic strategy
It might then surprise you that Oklahoma Contemporary has just mounted his first retrospective exhibition in this state in 40 years. Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: Honor Song opened Feb. 20 and features over 500 pieces. Honor Song took years to put together as Heap of Birds realized he had connections to Oklahoma Contemporary through family and former students.
That’s where we started when Heap of Birds joined me on Zoom: How did I find the exhibition? (Not at all a daunting question when speaking with one of America’s most significant contemporary artists.)
There was one piece I responded to in particular, “Dunging the Ground”: two large aluminum panels that were originally displayed outside at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Connecticut on either side of Enoch Smith Woods’ sculpture “Nathan Hale.” The panels feature violent quotes from militiamen who perpetrated the Pequot Massacre in 1637.
I told Heap of Birds that the recontextualization of the horrible event through his eyes, in a new setting and format, drew me to the work.
A lot of his art is like that: declarative or direct. “Smile for racism,” one painting invites with a menacing version of a Cleveland mascot scribbled over in red (“American League,” 1994). “Do Not Dance for Pay” is painted on another work (“Was Told 12 Times,” 2022).
“I feel really strongly about that perspective,” he said.
He noted that he doesn’t want to be driven by market demand, which is often steeped in fetishism and commodification.
“But if we had more art that was more real, like what you responded to about ‘Dunging the Ground’ and the Massacre of the Pequot — and people don’t know that happened, right?” he said. “It’s like a secret. And why should it be a secret? Why can’t we really embrace history? Because the artists aren’t presenting it.”
The assertiveness in his work is an artistic strategy and a political statement. His art refuses to cater to mainstream expectations about how Indigenous artists should create or what their art should look like. Instead of producing work that fits stereotypes, he challenges viewers with direct confrontations of historical truths and contemporary realities.
“Why is a Native artist asserting their history and their presence in society — that’s a remarkable achievement or a stance. Why are those things remarkable?” he asked. “People aren’t ready for that, or they don’t expect that you actually would speak up and say what’s true or how you feel rather than what you’re expected to say.”
A straightforward textual element also appears in “Neufs for Oklahoma Autumn” in the form of the backboards. “Sooners, today your host is Arapaho,” players will read on one. This is part of his Native Hosts series, which features signs honoring historical Indigenous inhabitants.
The courts themselves are based on two paintings in the gallery (“Neuf for Autumn” and “Neuf for Autumn II”) and feature over 50 colors. Heap of Birds, a basketball fan who went to KU (“Where they invented basketball”), said he’s been playing street ball for years, so the courts were a welcome canvas when he was first approached by Project Backboard for a New York project (which became “Neufs for Hawaii,” 2022).
“The Shinnecock people came and danced with their feathers on the courts, and we had workshops for children,” he said of the Murray Park court. “I’m looking to see what happens here, if we can program things or invite people to come in, have tournaments.”
The OKC opening will likely feature DJs and Indigenous drummers. Heap of Birds said he and the museum are open to other programming ideas, especially for Indigenous communities or youth.
Community creation
His Neuf paintings are abstract, leaflike shapes of diagonal color. He began these paintings in 1981 after returning to Oklahoma. Like many artists who study in major art centers, he found himself at a crossroads, connected to the art world but disconnected from the natural environment that nourished him.
“I came back after all that experience. I was showing in New York a bit, but I was kind of lost, struggling with trying to find the natural world, in a sense,” Heap of Birds said. “So I just moved back to the reservation, where I never lived before.”
This period led to an artistic breakthrough. While living in his great-grandmother’s home, he created his first Neuf painting, which would set the direction for much of his subsequent work. The painting emerged from both a spiritual and physical connection to the land.
“I look at it as a sovereign moment, and it has taken 30 years to understand that it was a painting,” he said. “I was on the reservation on the Arapahoe land, living with nature. And so sovereignty isn’t just a book or an idea; it’s really about a place.”
For Heap of Birds, public installations like the courts serve a purpose by making art accessible to people who might feel intimidated by traditional museum spaces.
“The public art, of course, is so great because it’s free. The museum’s free, but there’s certain apprehension about going in a big building, and people don’t go,” he said.
His approach connects to his broader concerns about art education and cultural awareness in Oklahoma. As an educator, Heap of Birds witnessed firsthand the gaps in arts education across the state. At OU, he mentored many students to success in art before shifting into Native Studies.
“I felt that it was important to educate more of the layperson at the university, because we needed more sponsors of art,” he said. “We’ve got enough artists. We’ve got a lot of artists. They don’t have any work being sold, and no exhibits. We need people to actually be the patrons.”
Heap of Birds continues to work internationally. He’s currently developing a project for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris that will examine the Louisiana Purchase from an Indigenous perspective (specifically, how France sold land it didn’t own in the first place). He was about to travel to work in Hawaii when we spoke, and he’s preparing a book with Radius Books in Santa Fe.
Heap of Birds has also focused on his involvement in his community, explaining how in the Cheyenne culture, ceremonial leaders and priests are involved in a form of creation.
“That’s how the culture is transmitted, has been transmitted in ceremony,” he said. “And I’ve been through that with ceremonies for 30 years. That’s why I live here, too. Now I’m more of an elder. So now I’m really happy to pursue more of that. How do you mentor other younger Cheyenne men that are responsible toward carrying on the culture?”
Visit oklahomacontemporary.org.
This article appears in Summer Guide 2025.