Heather Leier
Positions
Associate Professor
Contact information
Web presence
Background
Educational Background
M.F.A. Printmaking, University of Alberta,
B.F.A. , University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus,
Biography
My scholarly program is focused within the discipline of printmaking and more broadly exists within the field of contemporary visual art production and dissemination. I employ artistic approaches to examine and advance understanding about embodied trauma, life-phases, identities, and relations. Through the creation and presentation of visual art, I make visible the ways in which trauma is embodied, and I consider and draw attention to ways that one may endure with these experiences within public spaces and environmental contexts.This research has primarily taken the form, or resulted in the production of print works, artists books, sculptural installations, and curatorial projects.
I have developed and taught courses from foundational studio practice to graduate level studio research. I am the primary printmaking instructor in the Department of Art and Art History, and I also regularly teach courses in professional development and advanced research practices in studio.
Research
Areas of Research
Enacting Forms: This project explores the connections between gender-based violence, embodied trauma, and environmental crisis, focusing on care and intimacy as responses to harms perpetuated by hypermasculinity. It engages with the animacy of the more-than-human to reimagine relationships.
Selected Exhibitions
2025: The Wind At Dawn/ El Viento Al Amanecer, Southern Graphics Council International Conference"Puertograbando", San Juan, Puerto Rico. Forthcoming.
2024: Reimagining Fire: The Future of Energy, Leighton Art Centre, Foothills, Alberta. The Energy Futures Portfolio Project. Harcourt House, Edmonton, Alberta.
2023: Biennale internationale d'estampe contemporaine de Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec. (catalogue)
2022: Reorientations to Care, Marianne van Silfhout Gallery, St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario. (solo exhibition).Transitional Impressions: Visualizing Environmental Change. FAB Gallery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. (catalogue)
2021: Salt Spring Island National Art Prize, Mahon Hall, Ganges, Saltspring Island, British Columbia.(catalogue)
Avert: This project documents the conscious and subconscious gestures, coping mechanisms, and embodied effects used in navigating gender-based violence in public spaces. Drawing from experiences with street harassment, I create life-size representations on washi paper installing these images in situ.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 Avert, public installation, University of Calgary, presented by Carleton University’s, Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, “Architectures of Hiding” Symposium and University of Calgary’s Nickle Galleries. (publication)
2018 Avert, public installation, International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking, Artists, Concepts and Techniques (IMPACT) 10 Conference, Santander, Spain.
2017 Avert, public installation, Art in the Open, Charlottetown, PEI.
Quilts: This series explores tensions between appearance and reality through printmaking and quilting, reflecting the complexities of perma-crisis. By repurposing discarded materials, it emphasizes care and relationality in a world defined by ongoing upheaval.
Selected Exhibitions:
Contemporary Works on Paper, The Art Gallery at Western Wyoming Community College, Rock Springs, Wyoming. Forthcoming.
Sixty Square Inches XXI, Purdue Galleries, West Lafayette, Indiana. Forthcoming.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| ART 271 | Introduction To Printmaking | |
| ART 465 | Topics in Studio Research and Critique | |
| ART 565 | Topics in Studio Research and Critique | |
| ART 475 | Advanced Topics in Printmaking | |
| ART 605 | Critical Study and Research | |
| ART 397 | Professional Development | |
| ART 377 | Printmaking: Screenprint | |
| ART 379 | Printmaking: Intaglio | |
| ART 373 | Printmaking: Lithography | |
| ART 661 | Advanced Studio Practice |
Awards
- Sustainability Teaching Award, University of Calgary . 2020
- University of Calgary Students' Union Excellence in Teaching Award Nomination ,
In the News
- University of Calgary Sustainability Teaching Award: Art and Sustainable Development Goals. UCalgary News. (2020)
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