Heidi Schwegler (born 1967 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American artist in Yucca Valley, California.
Schwegler received her BFAs in Art History and Metals from the University of Kansas and her MFA from the University of Oregon. [1]
Schwegler is the founder of the Yucca Valley Material Lab, a space for thinking and making. From 2015 to 2018 she was the Chair of the Masters in Fine Arts Program in Applied Craft and Design, [2] a program jointly offered by Pacific Northwest College of Art and Oregon College of Art and Craft. Schwegler has been included in the 2018 Bellevue Art Museum Biennial, Portland2016 Biennial, the Portland2010 Biennial, and the Oregon Biennial in 1999.
In interviews, Schwegler has expressed "an affinity for the ruin, non-sites and discarded objects". [3] Schwegler calls herself "an urban archaeologist" who prefers "to mine the peripheral ruin, the discarded stuff that is ignored and considered worthless. By reassigning the value and purpose of something recognizable, I emphasize the perforation between what it was and what it has now become." [4] Pulling from the traditions of craft and conceptual art, Schwegler uses a variety of mediums, including glass, metal, sculpture, photography, and installation. [5] [6]
Schwegler is represented by UPFOR Gallery [7] in Portland, Oregon and Asphodel in New York City.