KELLY BOWMAN HEATON
Born 1972 in Chapel Hill, NC USA
BA Yale University, 1990-1994
MS Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998 - 2000

Solo Exhibitions

2023 Circuit Garden Brooklyn Commons, Brooklyn NY, Circuit Garden, 2/1 - 4/28
2022 Circuit Garden 5 Manhattan West, New York, NY, Circuit Garden, 2/28 - 6/3
2020 Canaries in the Coalmine Online exhibition Art at a Time Like This May
2015 Pollination Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Pollination, 9/12 - 10/17
2013 Electrolier Ronald Feldman Fine Art, ADAA Show, New York, NY, 3/5 – 3/9
2012 The Parallel Series Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, The Parallel Series, 9/8 – 10/27
2003 Live Pelt Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Live Pelt, 9/5 – 10/10
2003  Dead Pelt Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA, Dead Pelt, 4/25 – 5/27
2002 Reflection Loop bitforms gallery, Reflection Loop, New York, NY, 1/17 – 2/16
2001 MIT Council of the Arts, Cambridge, MA, Reflection Loop, October

Group Exhibitions

2023 Künstlerverbund im Haus der Kunst, München, DE, resetNOW! 8/7 - 9/21
Artport Kingston, Kingston, NY, Joy Ride, 7/21 - 9/3
Nightjar at Synchromy, Los Angeles, May 7 and 13
2022 Electronic Naturalism by invitation at Maker Faire Rome, October 2022
2022 Otis Street Arts Project, Artgineering V2.0, 10/8 - 12/3
2019 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Group Show Summer 2019, 06/19 – 07/26
2018 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Reprise: Summer Show 2018, 06/12 - 08/31
2018 Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN, Birds & Bees, 1/29 - 6/2
2017 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY Art on the Front Lines, 5/24 - 8/19
2016 Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY, Nectar: War upon the Bees, 12/9 - 2/11
2015 21c Museum, Louisville, KY, The Art of Idea Festival, 8/21 – 10/11
2013 The Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, Oscillator, 2/7 – 4/14
2011 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts at Seven, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL, 11/29 – 12/4
2011 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Taking Shape, 6/25 – 7/29
2011 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, En-Garde II: omg, 1/8 – 2/5
2010 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts at Seven, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL 11/30 – 12/5
2010 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Resurrectine, 5/15 – 6/26
2009 Lift09 Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, Lift09 Experience, 2/25 – 27
2009 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, BLACK&WHITEWORKS, 6/6 – 7/31 
2009 David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, Inappropriate Covers, 4/11 – 5/24
2008 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, Drawing Review: 37 Years of Works on Paper, 11/22 – 12/23
2006 Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College, Los Angeles, CA, From the Island of Misfit Toys, 2/11 – 4/15
2005 Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, Univ. City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA, The Americas, 1/14 – 2/25
2004 Galeria Galou, Brooklyn, NY, The Americas, 9/9 – 10/3
2002 Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, Fetish: Human Fantastic, 10/17 – 11/30
2002 Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, OR, Toyland, Curated by Sean Elwood, 9/5 – 9/28
2001 The Mills Gallery, Boston, MA, 17th Biennial Drawing Show, 12/15 – 1/24
2001 MIT Weisner Building, Cambridge, MA, Council of the Arts at MIT 29th Annual Meeting, 10/25
2001 DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, 2001 Annual Exhibition, 6/9 – 9/3
2000 The Hargate Center at St. Paul’s School, Concord, NH, Art in the 90s, January
1999 MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, Organic Form, December 
1999 Art Director’s Club, New York, NY, Organic Information, April
1998 MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, Numeric Photography, December
1998 The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Drawing Show, November
1996 Durham Art Guild, Durham, NC, 40th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, November

Awards and Grants

2022 Maker Music Festival Award of Merit for Hacking Nature’s Musicians
2020 Peter S. Reed Foundation grant recipient
2019 Hackaday Circuit Sculpture Contest winner
2018 Hackaday Cyber Punkster Achievement for Hacking Nature’s Musicians
2018 Semifinalist for the 2018 Hackaday Prize (Hacking Nature’s Musicians)
2002 Creative Capital Grant recipient for Biobota
2002 LEF Foundation Grant recipient
2001 L’Oreal Promotion Prize in the Art and Science of Color for The Physical Pixel Project
1997 Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for graduate study in Fine Arts

Commissions for art in public spaces

2022 Invited exhibitor at Maker Faire Rome for “Electronic Naturalism”
2022 “Circuit Garden.” 21 foot long interactive sculptural installation curated by Common Ground Arts and commissioned by Arts Brookfield for Manhattan West and Brooklyn Commons
2019 “The Making of a Pretty Bird.” 117 instances of a series of three aesthetic circuit board panels and wall mount system for guests rooms of the Hotel Indigo Chattanooga (commissioned by ViaNova Development Group)
2019 Pretty Bird ver.CC.” 120 instances of aesthetic circuit boards and associated electronics were commissioned by Creative Capital for select attendees of their 20th retreat anniversary celebration

Residencies

2023 New York University Tandon School of Engineering, January - May
2018 Tortuga Escondida Residency Center (sponsored fellowship), October - November
2017 Otis College of Art and Design, The LA Summer Residency
2003 Duke University Departments of Computer Science and Information Science and Information Studies, Durham, NC
2002 Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA
2000 MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies

Artist-designed Products

2023 Nightjar https://www.adafruit.com/product/5654
2022 Circuit Icon (conceptual brand designed by the artist) https://www.circuiticon.com/
2016 The Virginia Perfume Company, Makers of Field to Fragrance™ (Trademark registered by the artist) http://www.fieldtofragrance.com/

Select online presentations

2021  “Art&&Code: Homemade,” online conference hosted by the STUDIO at Carnegie Mellon University January 14-17, 2021
2020  “Computational Contraptions” workshop speaker (hosted by Wonderful Idea Co)
2020  “Deep Fake Birdsong,” artist talk with Johann Diedrick (hosted by Inter/Access)
2020  “Electronic Naturalism,” STEAM lecture for Broward College
2019  “Hacking Nature’s Musicians,” guest speaker at the 2019 Hackaday Superconference

Bibiliography (by the artist)

Heaton, Kelly. "Pollination,” 2015
Heaton, Kelly. “Physical Pixels,” MIT Media Laboratory, 2000
Heaton, Kelly; Poor, R.; Wheeler, A. “Nami” in SIGGRAPH99 Conference Abstracts and Applications. Emerging Technologies, 1999, p. 214

Books and Exhibition Catalogues

Shanken, Edward A. “Art and Electronic Media.” New York, NY: Phaidon Press, 2009, p. 31 
Wilson, Stephen. “Art + Science Now.” New York, NY: Thames and Hudson Inc., 2010. pp. 121 
Sichel, Berta. “Nectar: War upon the Bees.” New York, NY: Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 2016, p. 9

Periodicals (*indicates articles pertaining solely to the artist)

2022 Elektor Magazine Arduino Special Issue, December
2022 Celarier, Eric, “Artengineering V2.0 at Otis Street Arts Project,” November 29
2022 * Caleb Kraft, “Mimicking Nature Via Analog Circuits: Kelly Heaton,” Make Magazine, November 1
2022 Mario di Ciommo “L’arte di innovare,” La Repubblica, October 6
2022 * “Making Art with Electricity: A Q&A with Kelly Heaton,” August 2, 2022 by CJ Abate
2022 * “Circuit Garden” featured by adafruit.com March 14, 2022. tinyurl.com/mr2n8yp5
2022 * Picugins, Arsenjis, “Printed Circuit Bird Family Calls for Us to Consider Analog,” Hackaday.com, January 23, 2022
2020 * “Electrical Vibrations,” Project61, Issue 34, May 7, 2020
2019 Malony, Dan. “Project Community Profile: hackaday.io." MAKE Magazine Volume 71 December 2019/January 2020
2019 Szczys, Mike. “Twelve Circuit Sculptures We Can’t Stop Looking At.” Hackaday Blog. January 15
2018 * Benchoff, Brian. "Hacking Nature's Muscians." Hackaday. October 20, 2018
2018 * Dufresne, Steven. “Synthesizing Mother Nature’s Sounds Like You’ve Never Seen Before.” Hackaday Blog. October 14
2017 Ferguson, Joe. “Straight Talk: Technology & Bees with Kelly Heaton.” SciArt Magazine June
2017 * Interview with For Creative Girls, “Career Migrants: How Art, Spirituality & Electrical Engineering Culminate In Kelly Heaton’s Work”
2017 "Art on the Front Lines." Wall Street Journal Magazine, May 24
2016 Nunes, Andrew. “To Save the Bees, Art and Activism Cross-Pollinate.” The Creators Project, December 24
2015 * Meier, Allison. ”The Honeybee as Artistic Messenger.” Hyperallergic. October 20
2015 * Buntaine, Julia. "CITY SIGHTS: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts." SciArt in America, 9/18
2015 * Spool, Ari. "An Artist and Beekeeper Explores the Phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder." 9/29
2013 Columbia, David Patrick. “Business was brisk.” New York Social Diary, March 6
2012 * Gill, Jenny. “In Focus: Kelly Heaton’s ‘The Parallel Series,’” Creative Capital: The Lab, 10/23
2012 * Saltz, Jerry. “Circuits Art.” New York Magazine (October 15, 2012): 128
2012 Shuster, Robert. “Guido van der Werve: Boom Goes Chopin, Plus: Kelly Heaton: ‘The Parallel Series.’” 
2011 Staff. “Agenda Recommends: Taking Shape.” Vulture Daily Digest, June 28, 2011
2011 Staff, “New Yorker Passport To The Arts This Saturday.” Gothamist, November 8, 2011
2010 Bellas, Benjamin. “Miami Art Fairs: SEVEN” 
2010 McCorquodale, Amanda. “Seven Miami: The Highlight of Art Basel.” Miami NewTimes Blogs 12/6
2009 LeGoff, Tom. “Bell Gallery show ‘Covers’ the joys of recycling.” Projo.com, Art, April 30, 2009
2006 Dea, Cynthia. “Where Elmo makes one great coat.” Los Angeles Times. 3/23, p. E15
2006 “From the Island of Misfit Toys.” Juxtapoz 13, no. 5 (May 2006): 56-59
2006 Pistor, Rahne. “What’s On: Toy inspired exhibit is no child’s play at Ben Maltz Gallery in Westchester” The Argonaut, February 16, 2006, pg. 17
2004 “Die Biennale in Venedig hat keinen kalt gelassen.” Art das Kunstmagazin, no.1 (January 2004): 54-59
2004 Nakamura, Marie-Pierre. “Vu a New York: Robots, Manteau.” Art Actuel (May/June 2004): 25
2003 * Haende, Anitra. “Kelly Heaton’s Live Pelt.” NY Arts (November-December 2003)
2003 * “Kelly Heaton: Live Pelt.” The Week 3, no. 123, September 19, 2003, p. 28
2003 * “Kelly Heaton.” The New Yorker, September 22, 2003, p. 26
2003 * Levin, Kim. “Kelly Heaton.” The Village Voice, October 1 – 7, 2003, p. 50
2003 * Robinson, Walter. “Weekend Update.” artnet.com
2003 * Schwendener, Martha. “Kelly Heaton.” Artforum.com Critics’ Picks
2003 * Stillman, Nick. “Kelly Heaton, Live Pelt.” The Brooklyn Rail (October 2003): 12

Patents

US 20110191343 A1 “Computer Research Tool For The Organization, Visualization And Analysis Of Metabolic-Related Clinical Data And Method Thereof,” Issued Aug 4, 2011

US 7912674 “Method for processing a chronological sequence of measurements of a time dependent parameter,” Issued Apr 29, 2009

US 8684929 “Method for visualizing a chronological sequence of measurements,” Issued Dec 14, 2007