Creative Capital

Heidi Kumao

Heidi Kumao is an interdisciplinary artist who creates video and machine art to explore ordinary social interactions and their psychological undercurrents. Through the creation of kinetic and electronic sculpture, interactive installations and digital animations, she seeks to heighten awareness of our everyday experiences such as childhood play, family dynamics, television news, and even the wearing of clothes.

Kumao has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions including one-person exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; and Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. She has received numerous grants and fellowships for her work including grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, a Microsoft Artist-in-Residence Fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, and the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.