SANTA FE, NM, July 13, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Heidi Loewen has been inducted into Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Heidi Loewen has found great success as a distinguished sculptor, curator, gallerist, and teacher from New York City to Boston to Santa Fe, New Mexico. From the age of two, she adored playing in the mud. She never dreamt that her love of mud would become her life's work. After managing several arts organizations, she founded and directs the Heidi Loewen Fine Art Gallery & School in Santa Fe, NM, near the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
Loewen grew up in Rochester, NY, with parents who cared deeply for the arts. Her father was a noted scientist in optical precision engineering, her mother a nurse and artist. From her first pottery class at age 10, Loewen discovered the magic of creating "squish."
Loewen studied piano and voice at Eastman School of Music and seriously considered a career in music. She graduated with honors from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, with a Bachelor of Science in fine art and languages. She studied art history and languages at the Sorbonne in Paris, and ceramics at Harvard University. Before establishing her gallery career, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office, American College of Switzerland, Swiss Ski School, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. For several years, she was a Business Manager at Sotheby's Art Auction House, in New York City. Subsequently, she became assistant curator for William I. Koch's Spring Creek Art Foundation and private collection in Boston, before moving to Santa Fe.
After a trip to the Southwest, she became entranced by its historic and contemporary ceramic culture, varied climate and high mountains. While working on her craft at Santa Fe Clay, she was asked to take over for a teacher, and immediately took to teaching ceramics. She loved that porcelain is ancient and interactive – and it became her sculptural canvas. Eager to open her own pottery school, Loewen also decided to start a gallery.
Loewen's motto is: dive in deeply and engineer one's way to success. Most ceramic artists create for function. She creates for art's sake, the more "mistakes" the merrier. Preparing for a show on the Santa Fe Plaza, her kiln malfunctioned. She washed off the glazes and smoke-fired for the first time, resulting in a sold out show, a mark of success for any artist, any time. Growing up in a scientific family, Loewen embraces mistakes as unpredictable new techniques. The world chastises mistakes. She celebrates innovative screw ups. Collectors commission art based on design and concept. Innovation happens when Loewen's collectors are invited to collaborate and use their hands during the clay building process for their commissioned sculptures.
Restoring Auguste Rodin sculptures with a professional art conservator at a collector's Bel Aire residence, Loewen developed a pigmented wax process for her porcelain. Inspired by her noted aunt, Frances Bunyard, a calligrapher, carver, and gilder in Boston, Loewen gilds and adds gemstones, crystals and oil paint to her sculptures and installations. She has achieved great technical proficiency with porcelain, considered the most difficult of materials.
Loewen is drawn to refined, classical forms with consideration of the ancient Greek and Roman ceramics she studied at the British Museum. When at Sotheby's, Loewen was invited for a private tea with noted British sculptor, Henry Moore, in Hertfordshire, England. Moore stated: "Should a sculpture be beautiful in small form, it will be just as spectacular when cast large, should the proportions be right."
UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) honored Loewen as a delegate in 2012. She was flown to South Korea to lecture and teach porcelain techniques in Icheon. She later visited Thai Metal Crafters, a major bronze foundry, near Bangkok. The foundry owner viewed Heidi's website and suggested they cast her stiletto shoe sculpture – six feet long, for the 2015 Miami Basel Art Show. Heidi painted the cast stiletto ruby red, adding her signature opalized crystals. She received the Best Sculpture Award at Miami Basel Spectrum. It was the most photographed sculpture in the show.
Loewen believes it is crucial to support the development of young people through the arts. Heidi invites talented high school students as interns. These assistants learn aspects of the gallery world: marketing, photography, videography, technology, pitching TV shows, community outreach, gold leafing, sweeping, teaching, writing, lecturing, hosting receptions, and creating art.
Artsmart awarded Heidi Loewen Artist of the Year, 2019. This offered Heidi the opportunity to work with 40 Santa Fe High School students. They created porcelain shoes depicting family stories. Heidi organized a television appearance for the students and their work, resulting in a successful show and benefit auction.
Throughout her career, Heidi has not only loved creating but also found great joy in teaching. She offers private classes to visitors from around the world, including renowned celebrities. International corporations send top executives for team building. Heidi also hosts ceramic lectures for American museum directors. She honors her collectors by offering gratis pottery classes per commission. Loewen's classes are considered one of the "Top Ten Activities in Santa Fe."
Loewen was awarded the Edwina Milner Women in the Arts Lecturer and retrospective exhibition at WUNM, Silver City, NM. Teaching the University students was a highlight of her career.
She was selected for several years as a Contemporary Ceramics Judge for the Southwest Indian Art Market. She has created works of art for: International Folk Art Museum; New Mexico Youth Outreach; Rape Crisis Center; Santa Fe Animal Shelter; United Way; American Cancer Society; Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; and the International Council on Foreign Relations.
Several examples of Loewen's award winning sculpture are: "Un Oeuf is Enough," (porcelain Egg Sculpture with AK-47 rifle emerging from the yolk - her stand against gun violence) which won the Art Santa Fe Sculpture Award; "It's the Shoe That Makes the Woman," her 6 ft. metal sculpture, illuminated on Heidi's Gallery roof, is a prize winner and Santa Fe Landmark. "Filabia Mignon" is her 4 ft. tall porcelain & gold leafed sculpture representing female empowerment. Also notable are collaborations with internationally acclaimed artists: Braldt Bralds; Alexandra Eldridge; Bette Ridgeway, Somers Randolph; Kevin Box.
Through Loewen's pro-bono ceramic demonstrations, teaching for the City of Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, she was selected from hundreds of Santa Fe artists to host and teach acclaimed Italian chef, Giada De Laurentiis on her Food Network television show "Giada's Weekend Getaways," and Samantha Brown's TV show "Passport to Great Weekends." Her other TV appearances include: Home & Garden, Good Morning New Mexico, Hotel Showdown and Korean Airlines.
Loewen's works have been included in numerous Museum and Gallery Exhibitions: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; American Embassy, Paris; Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe; Miami Basel Art Show; New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts; Carlos Slim Helu's Museo Soumaya, Mexico City; Icheon Ceramics Center, South Korea; Southwest Biennale, Albuquerque, NM: Addison Rowe, Palm Desert, CA; National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts, Ft. Worth, TX; Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA; Western University of New Mexico, Silver City, NM; Solo Show Hutchison Art Center, KS; Contemporary Crafts Museum, Portland, OR; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Harwood Museum, Taos, NM; Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe; Anthony Gallery, Beaver Creek, CO; Costello Childs Contemporary, Phoenix, AZ; Four Seasons Hotel, Santa Fe; Evoke Gallery, Santa Fe; Edmond Craig Gallery, Ft. Worth; Mariposa, Albuquerque; Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL; Waxlander Khadouré Fine Art, Santa Fe; Infinity, Boston; Carole LaRoche, Santa Fe; Fenton Fine Art, Ft. Worth; Katie Gingrass, Milwaukee, WI; Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, NY; Lumina Gallery, Taos; Chiaroscuro, Scottsdale, AZ; Philinda Gallery, Vail, CO; Hennington Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Seven-O-Seven Gallery, Santa Fe; Lyon & Lyon Fine Art, New Orleans, LA; Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, OK.
Heidi's work has appeared in the following publications:
Craft in America, 150 Years of Artists and Objets, Jo Lauria, Steve Fenton, Prologue by President Jimmy Carter; National Geographic; 3-D Art Techné, New Mexico Series; Southwest Biennale, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Curator: Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Una Noche Que Dejara Huella, Fundacion de Altruismo, Mexico City; Santa Fe New Mexican, "Gallery Owner Doesn't Mind if Clients Get Their Hands Dirty," Cindy Bellinger; Food of Santa Fe, Authentic Recipes form the American Southwest, Periplus Publications; Coyote Café's Southwest Pantry, The Great Salsa Book, by Mark Miller and Mark Kiffin; Metropolitan Home Magazine; Trend Magazine; Santa Fe Culinary Artistry, Feasting for the Eye and Body Delights Heidi Loewen's Collectors, by Eve Tulpa, Santa Fean; Collector's Guide; Santa Fe Catalogue, (14) editions; Santa Fe Reporter, "Glazed & Bemused, Heidi Loewen's Clay Empire," by Iris McLister.
President Barack and Michelle Obama, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson presented commendations to Heidi Loewen. Her artwork is in their collections, as well as: Giada De Laurentiis, Samantha Brown, Art Buchwald, William I. Koch, Gail & Vernon Reaser, Dr. John Warnock, Valerie Plame, Frank O. Gehry and Caroline Kennedy.
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