Alexander Heilner, a multi-disciplinary artist who works in photography, video, digital imaging, installation, lighting design and sculpture, will present a free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 6 in Richards Hall, room 15.
His visit to UNL is made possible with support from the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
Heilner’s work has been exhibited, screened and performed nationally and internationally, from MoMA to Burning Man. In 2012, he won the prestigious Baker Artist Prize and his work was featured at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The same year, his commissioned digital collages were featured in the new Johns Hopkins Hospital complex, and Baltimore magazine named him the city’s best photographer.
Most of Heilner’s photography consists of color landscapes. He is obsessed with the relationship between artificial and natural elements within the environment, and within our culture. His recent aerial photography has taken him to an array of locations around the U.S. and the world, looking at the infrastructure and other marks humans unwittingly paint across the earth’s surface. Alex has recently begun a long-term collaborative project to document Arctic communities that are in flux due to climate change.
In addition to his fine art work, Heilner works selectively in photojournalism and commercial photography, taking on print and web projects that hold particular interest for him. His work has been featured in National Geographic, JPEG, Details, and the website of public radio’s Marketplace. Nearly 200 of his photographs are featured in the 2010 Encyclopedia of New York City.
Heilner earned a Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has been teaching photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art since 2003, and currently serves as the associate dean of design and media. Previously, he taught photography and digital imaging at New York University, as well as film and video production at School of Visual Arts. He has also served as the director of the photography program at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.
