bio | heidinagtegaal.com

Heidi Nagtegaal (BFA ECUAD, 2005) is an artist, writer, facilitator, and business owner residing on stolen territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations. They founded Hammock Residency and Headbands & Bracelets, motivated by exchanges built on currencies that nourish instead of deplete.

Nagtegaal studied trauma and embodiment with Dr. Beth Hedva (2016). They graduated from The School of the Free Hammock (2018), a self-made MFA program based in mutual aid.

Heidi has a 20 year history of large scale textile works, and a 10 year history of ceramic pieces that become performances, video pieces, interventions, sculptures, fashion, and furniture. They also produce drawings, but mainly off to the side, beside these other practices.

If you want to get a hold of the artist, email: heidinagtegaalprojects@gmail.com.

Heidi Nagtegaal (BFA ECUAD, 2005) is an artist, writer, facilitator, and business owner residing on stolen territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations. They founded Hammock Residency and Headbands & Bracelets, motivated by exchanges built on currencies that nourish instead of deplete.

Nagtegaal (they/them) studied trauma and embodiment with Dr. Beth Hedva (2016). They graduated from The School of the Free Hammock (2018), a self-made MFA program based in mutual aid.

Nagtegaal’s aesthetic encapsulates soft sculptures, textiles, sculptures, intervention, performance, installation, and activation. Oftentimes subject matter is about hard-to-talk-about-subjects, using the artwork itself to help mitigate the barriers or stigma around a topic.

Heidi has shown locally, and internationally, most notably at the Tate Museum for Modern Art in 2010. In 2024, they are doing a research residency in Malcolm Island, BC, a research residency and exhibition in Rotterdam, Netherlands in September, and a week long performance for performance festival 7a11d in Toronto, Ontario.

They also run a few small businesses: Tarot Times With Heidi (tarot readings + education), and By Tooth And Claw Clothing (tarot patches + tees + miscellany).

Heidi Nagtegaal (BFA ECUAD, 2005) is an artist, writer, facilitator, and business owner residing on stolen territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations.

Hammock Residency was founded in 2016 by Nagtegaal and ran until 2016 in their home, then took a 5 year break, re-emerging in 2021 as a fully funded online residency through Canada Council and BC Arts Council, and focussing on working with folks with disabilities (self diagnosis ok). Hammock umbrellas the Hammock Residency Press, Sweaty Bones, and The School of the Free Hammock, alongside the residency program.

Nagtegaal (they/them) studied trauma and embodiment with Dr. Beth Hedva (2016). They graduated from The School of the Free Hammock (2018), a self-made MFA program based in mutual aid. They has a heavy community background working with respite care, community care and outreach from 2004-2016 in inner city schools, with a mix of racialized children, most struggling against cycles of poverty and abuse. Nagtegaal worked as a community outreach, and support worker.

They also practise tarot, astrology, and runic readings at Tarot Times With Heidi, which offers divination through a restorative justice lens. There are also counsellors on staff, for folks that need that. They make t-shirts, patches, and altar objects at By Tooth And Claw Clothing, which vends in 14 stores across Canada.

Motivated by exchanges built on currencies that nourish instead of deplete, Nagtegaal’s aesthetic encapsulates soft sculptures, textiles, sculptures, intervention, performance, installation, and activation. Oftentimes subject matter is about hard-to-talk-about-subjects, using the artwork itself to help mitigate the barriers or stigma around a topic.

Heidi Nagtegaal is an artist, organizer, writer, small business owner, and facilitator living and working in so called Vancouver BC, the unceded and stolen territories of the Coast Salish peoples. They are queer, non binary, and heavily neurodivergent or disabled (pick whichever term suits you): Autism, ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Generalized Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety and Hard of Hearing (50% hearing).

Their art work centres around conversations around care, support, self discovery, introspection, societal weavings, and is largely based in mostly larger scale textile works, video, photography, sculpture and installation. Heidi has shown extensively in gallery spaces: TATE Modern, CSA Space, Access Gallery, etc.

They have also run the artist project Headbands and Bracelets since 2003, wrapping people with their handmade headbands and bracelets. The idea is that everyone in a space gets offered one, documenting a shared time and space together. Through the years, it has also documented the ebb and flow of arts spaces as well.

Heidi founded Hammock Residency as a solo artist project run out of their home, in 2006 for a soft launch, and hard launched it in 2008. Hammock centered on facilitating artists who were feeling marginalized in some ways, from not knowing the right people, to being immigrants, or gender diverse, or racialized, or just shy. From mid 2016 to mid 2020 it was fallow, as Heidi recovered from burnout, and redesigned the Hammock structure into a more sustainable model.

In 2021 Hammock was relaunched as an online program, a collective, and fully funded. Hammock’s programming fluctuates to match the funding levels, expanding and contracting their funding so that every artist, collective member, and contract worker is fully paid for their labour at a good wage. Hammock Residency hosts 4 online residencies a year, with 20 mentorship hours each, a double sided 11x17 risograph publication, which is then distributed across Canada, the States, and overseas through the Decentralized Distribution Nodes on a biyearly basis. There is an exhibition, and artist talks as well.

They run 2 small businesses: Tarot Times With Heidi and By Tooth And Claw Clothing. In Tarot Times With Heidi they offer psychic readings, tarot, astrology, runes, tea leaf readings, reiki and shamanism. They also teach these things in a trauma informed, consent based, client based manner.

By Tooth and Claw Clothing offers tshirts and patches with mostly tarot designs and some nature designs on them, and vends in 19 stores across Canada.

HEIDI NAGTEGAAL
ART PROJECTS

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