Heidi Neilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between people on the ground and the atmospheric, orbital, and electromagnetic conditions and infrastructures that shape contemporary life. She works in multiple mediums including radio transmissions, sound, sculpture, electronics, prints, books, and video. She is currently co-operating Here GOES Radiotelescope, a sculptural receiving station for data transmissions from GOES-19, a NOAA/NASA weather satellite, and using the volumes of earth observation and space weather data collected by the station for a variety of projects.
From the New York Foundation for the Arts, Neilson is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts and a 2015 Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work. Neilson has been awarded Individual Artists grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (2024, 2022), a Media Assistance Fund for Artists Grant—New York State Council on the Arts in Partnership with Wave Farm (2018), Art Matters Grant—Art Matters Foundation (2013), and Individual Artist Support—New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Queens Council on the Arts (2021, 2018, 2007). She was a visiting artist at the Center for Integrated Media at Calarts, and an artist resident at The STUDIO For Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, the Urban Field Station at NYC’s Parks Department, SPACES, Wave Farm, Flux Factory, Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, Provisions Library, Elsewhere, Lower East Side Printshop, Center for Book Arts, Visual Studies Workshop, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and her artist books and other works are held in over 100 collections, including those of the Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Institute of Art, Columbia University, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and Yale University. Writing about her work has appeared in Hyperallergic, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Popular Mechanics, among others.
Neilson holds an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute and a BA in biology from Reed College. She teaches at Parsons School of Design and SUNY-FIT Fashion Institute of Technology, and lives and works in New York. Her ham radio call sign is KD2ESI.
Contact
email: hn (at) heidineilson (dot) com