Edgar Heap of Birds’ art tells a story of both his personal history and the history of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

Heap of Birds, a Native American artist, has had exhibitions throughout the nation and world and is making his second appearance at Sacramento State this week. His appearance is sponsored by the Asian Art History Club, whose faculty adviser, art professor Pattaratorn Chirapravati, invited Heap of Birds to speak at Sac State for the first time in 2003.

“Edgar is an outstanding speaker,” Chirapravati said. “He brought many of us to tears when he gave his talk here. (As a result) many students became interested in Native American art.”

A member of both the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes, Heap of Birds uses paint and metal to create thought-provoking posters, paintings and sculptures. He has spoken at dozens of colleges and universities, and been a guest lecturer at several more.

Though Heap of Birds has recently begun to use more modern mediums like computerized billboards and art displays on metal signposts, a lot of his art is what he considers prints or posters. While some are full of words highlighting the despair and irony present in the cultural history of Native Americans, others consist of contrasting colors in feathery, organic shapes laid out on top of one another.

The art Heap of Birds is exhibiting this week is a retrospective of his posters titled “Messages Through the Years,” consisting of work from 1986 to present. Though his posters may not fit into the traditional canvas-and-frame definition of art, he believes the message is much more important than an aesthetically pleasing appearance.

“Art is a part of visual learning, visual expression,” Heap of Birds said. “A big part of art is the content, the meaning behind (the piece).”

Heap of Birds has been “involved in art” for most of his life, but art became politicized for him while he was in graduate school. Now, a new piece usually begins with a problem or a question he wants to uncover or investigate, and usually ends with a message about Native American history.

“I was talking in Beijing to a group of students about a print I made in 1989. (I told them) I was there in Tiananmen Square, and they brought out a papier mache model of the Statue of Liberty. They had such a mythical idea about democracy, which they would kill for, but I reminded them that while the Statue of Liberty is welcoming everyone to America, her back is to the Indians,” Heap of Birds said.

Much of Heap of Birds’ posters are high-contrast and sparse, a plain background sporting heavily connoted words and images. An occasional burst of color adds interest and meaning, changing a caricature of a happy Native American face into an overt bloodbath.

Heap of Birds’ posters will be accompanied by a lecture at the culmination of the exhibit on Friday. The lecture, titled “Being a Global Citizen and Sharing Native History and Art Across the World,” will address the history and culture of both Native Americans and other indigenous peoples around the world.

“(Being a global citizen) is having enough empathy to care about the populations around the world. We need to see ourselves in an alliance with the native people, and know native people’s rights. I have empathy with other people’s plights, not just my own, but we need to see the alignment between all cultures,” Heap of Birds said.

The theme that remains constant throughout all of Heap of Birds’ work, regardless of whether it is paint on paper or porcelain-covered steel, is the struggle that Native Americans have faced in the hundreds of years of American history.

“I try to depict others’ plights,” Heap of Birds said. “(The display of) that destruction is carried out through art, and that art is my expression.”

Alexandra Poggione can be reached at [email protected]