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Heidi Kumao

Professor

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Photograph of Heidi Kumao

Biography

Curriculum Vitae
  • M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1991
  • B.S. (Chemistry), University of California-Davis, 1988
  • B.A. (Art Studio), University of California-Davis, 1988

Generating artistic spectacle through the intersection of cinema, sculpture, theater and technology, Heidi Kumao reframes ordinary gestures to explore their psychological underside. Her interests have manifested a wide range of hybrid art forms including: a game interface which empowers users to hack live CNN broadcasts, provocative electronic women’s clothing, electromechanical girl’s legs that “misbehave,” surreal stop motion animations, narrative video sculptures, short experimental films and “cinema machines,” sabotaged household objects outfitted with hand made projectors.

She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Canada and China including solo shows at: the Museu da Imagem e do Som (São Paulo), Museu de Arte Moderne (Buenos Aires), Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, Centro Cultural Light (Rio de Janeiro), Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco), Arizona State University Art Museum, Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester), Ceres Gallery (NYC), Three Rivers Art Gallery (Pittsburgh), and Art in General in New York City, among many others. “Hidden Mechanisms,” a solo show of her “cinema machines” toured for a couple of years to Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S.

Group show venues include: the Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Wing Luke Asian Art Museum (Seattle), and Usina do Gasômetro Cultural Center (Porto Alegre, Brazil), San Jose Museum of Art, National Academy Museum (New York City), El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe (NM), Museo Universtario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City) and Wing Luke Asian Art Museum (Seattle) among others.

She has received numerous national fellowships, grants, residencies and awards including: a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital Grant in Emerging Fields/Robotics, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Art Matters, The American Association of University Women, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Studio for Creative Inquiry. Her films have been screened in festivals nationally and internationally in the Black Maria Film Festival (Jury’s Choice Award – 1st Prize), Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival (Best Experimental/Documentary Award), Videoholica International Video Art Festival in Bulgaria (Bronze Videoholica Award), Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinemas, Marseille, and SIMULTAN Festival in Romania.

She has been in residence at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo Art Colony, Jentel Artist Residency Program, the Arctic Circle Residency, Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Light Work, and Sculpture Space.

Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Arizona State University Art Museum, the Exploratorium, and numerous private collections and has been reviewed in Artforum, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, and Afterimage.

Prior to arriving at the University of Michigan, Kumao taught media studies and photography at Syracuse University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and intermedia classes at RISD and City College in New York City. She is a professor at the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

News

Stamps Professor Emilia Yang talking with a group about her work at the "Untold Stories: Part I" exhibition opening reception.

Untold Stories, Part I: Exhibition Walkthrough with the Artists
The family of murdered Danny Ezequiel López Morales hold his photo in this black and white image.

Untold Stories, Part I: Opening Reception
Jim Cogswell, Pyre, 2020: stenciled red, blue, and black hands and feet are arranged in a pile over barbed wire. The red hands appear to be flames, with white curls of smoke rising from the group.

Untold Stories, Part I
Ann Arbor Film Festival Logo

Stamps Student Trailers at 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival
Cover of "Real and Imagined" by Heidi Kumao. The cover depicts two chairs and red thread using fabric and wool on industrial felt.

Stamps Gallery Celebrates Heidi Kumao's "Real and Imagined"
Ann Arbor Film Festival Logo

Stamps Has Strong Connection to 2022 Ann Arbor Film Festival
AAFF’s Opening Night Party at the Michigan Theater on March 20, 2018

Stamps Student Work to be Featured at Ann Arbor Film Festival
A 3D exhibition showing work on a virtual gallery wall.

Breaking Down Silos, Making Change: 2021 Stamps DEI Team Grants
Artwork depicting two chairs facing each other with dome heads on top and threads connecting them

Real and Imagined: Virtual Tour
Ceres Gallery show086

Heidi Kumao: Solo Show in New York City
Aaff 2021 banner

Stamps Students Animate for 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival
HK Real and Imagined email header 01

Heidi Kumao: Real and Imagined
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Heidi Kumao: New Quarantine Animation
Center for Fiction 2019 10 24

Gender, Bodies, and Machines: Susan Steinberg and Heidi Kumao
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Heidi Kumao Named Faculty Fellow at Institute for the Humanities
Stamps Professors Heidi Kumao and Holly Hughes view Kara Calvert's work.

The Heart of the Story: Narrative Forms at Stamps
Aaff wide

Stamps Students Animate for 56th Ann Arbor Film Festival
Wiper belljar 089 2018

Heidi Kumao Exhibits in California
Legs Singapore

Heidi Kumao Exhibits in ArtScience Museum, Singapore
Facebook Opening Reception

Heidi Kumao: Work Featured at Ann Arbor Art Center Exhibition

Work

Women stifled under an authoritarian regime reclaim self-determination by reading banned books to create their own reality from books' -- and even pages' -- physicality Heidi Kumao: Egress Faculty Heidi Kumao: Egress
Women stifled under an authoritarian regime reclaim self-determination by reading banned books to create their own reality from books' -- and even pages' -- physicality Heidi Kumao: Egress, 2014 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Egress, 2014
Women stifled under an authoritarian regime reclaim self-determination by reading banned books to create their own reality from books' -- and even pages' -- physicality Heidi Kumao: Egress, 2014 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Egress, 2014
Heidi Kumao: Installation view of solo exhibition, “Surviving Confinement: Video Sculpture” Heidi Kumao: Installation view of solo exhibition, “Surviving Confinement: Video Sculpture” Faculty Heidi Kumao: Installation view of solo exhibition, “Surviving Confinement: Video Sculpture”
A human figure in the distance, in an icy landscape. Heidi Kumao: Swallowed Whole, 2014 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Swallowed Whole, 2014
Shown from below, feet walk across the ice Heidi Kumao: Swallowed Whole, 2014 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Swallowed Whole, 2014
Projected images over a class bell jar Heidi Kumao: Transplant, 2010 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Transplant, 2010
Projected images over a glass bell jar Heidi Kumao: Transplant, 2010 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Transplant, 2010
Image of a figure projected on the exterior of a room Heidi Kumao: Tether, 2010 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Tether, 2010
Image of a figure projected on a sheet Heidi Kumao: Tether, 2010 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Tether, 2010
the shadow of a projected dog and hand Heidi Kumao: Correspondence, 2008 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Correspondence, 2008
A green light shines in a projection Heidi Kumao: Correspondence, 2008 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Correspondence, 2008
Heidi Kumao: Self-portrait with Monkey (Frida), 2011 Heidi Kumao: Self-portrait with Monkey (Frida), 2011 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Self-portrait with Monkey (Frida), 2011
Heidi Kumao: Easter Bunny Basket Case, 2011 Heidi Kumao: Easter Bunny Basket Case, 2011 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Easter Bunny Basket Case, 2011
A mechanical sculpture stands near an orange chair Heidi Kumao: Translator, 2008 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Translator, 2008
Heidi Kumao with two mechanical sculptures Heidi Kumao Faculty Heidi Kumao
A mechanical sculpture stands next to an easy chair Heidi Kumao Faculty Heidi Kumao
A pair of girl’s legs stomps and taps while standing on a glass-topped restaurant table. Her activity is initiated by a motion detector. Heidi Kumao: Protest, 2004-05 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Protest, 2004-05
Heidi Kumao: Resist, 2002-04 (from Misbehaving: Performative Media Machines Act Out) Heidi Kumao: Resist, 2002-04 (from <i>Misbehaving: Performative Media Machines Act Out</i>) Faculty Heidi Kumao: Resist, 2002-04 (from <i>Misbehaving: Performative Media Machines Act Out</i>)
A light-up brassiere Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Bra, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>) Faculty Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Bra, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>)
A light-up bra Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Bra, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>) Faculty Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Bra, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>)
Heidi Kumao wears an LED-lit dress near Michigan Marching Band performers Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Dress, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>) Faculty Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Dress, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>)
Heidi Kumao, wearing a dress that's lit with vertical bands of LED light Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Dress, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>) Faculty Heidi Kumao: Audio-Activated Dress, (from <i>Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances</i>)
Heidi Kumao: Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances, installation view, 2005 Heidi Kumao: Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances, installation view, 2005 Faculty Heidi Kumao: Wired Wear: Mediating Everyday Performances, installation view, 2005
Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Faculty Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast
Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Faculty Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast
Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast Faculty Heidi Kumao: CNNplusplus, 2006, interactive news broadcast