about:
Annie Heckman is a visual artist and educator whose work explores mortality and coming-of-age stories through animation, installation, drawing, and writing. Heckman was born in Chicago, grew up in nearby Park Ridge, and received her BFA in Studio Art in 2002 from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her MFA in Studio Art in 2006 at New York University's Steinhardt School, with a focus in video and print that merged into a studio practice of sculptural animation installations and works on paper. Later that year she relocated her studio to Chicago and founded StepSister Press, a small publishing company creating books that feature contemporary artists and authors. Heckman serves as Visiting Assistant Professor in DePaul University’s Department of Art, Media, and Design, participates in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s School and Teacher Programs, and runs her studio and business from the city's north and west sides. Her teaching work stems from an inquiry-based approach that supports learners in generating open dialogue in studio, museum, and classroom environments.
Heckman’s interest in mortality as a topic for her work began with early memories of seeking out viewings of dead animals on the edge of town and joining her family in late-night drives to view celestial events in the countryside. She looks to these young moments of awe as references for her work, focusing on love and death as limit points of experience, with her viewers as companions in questioning the workings of the mind at moments of change. Over the years Heckman has produced her work with generous support from the University of Illinois at Chicago, New York University, the City of Chicago, and the Illinois Arts Council. She is best known for her intricate drawings and animations, and for her incorporation of phosphorescent elements and light cycles in installed sculptural environments. She currently produces her studio and book projects while conducting creative research on the skeletal system, trephination, herbalism, and neuroscience as Artist in Residence at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.
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