I was bom and grew up in Cologne, Germany. Until 1993, I lived and worked as a photographer in Melbourne, Australia. Since then I have been living and working as an artist in New York.
1989 B.A. Photography with Distinction, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia
1995 M.F.A.Photography and Related Media, School of Visual Arts, NewYork

Heike Bartels' use of digital processes to manipulate and transform objects of danger into the more benign structure defined as 'art', suggests a paradoxical attitude to the complex and highly refined visual and iconographical power of weapons. The artist responds first to the inherent beauty of these objects, and inevitable side-effect of form and function streamlined into classic modernist perfection. However, what is interesting here, is how the artist brings the power of art's creative 'Eros' into conflict with the destructive force of 'Thanatos' intrinsic to the culture of weaponry. These forces struggle toward a stand-off within the pattered clarity of Bartels' graphic pictorial approach.
Clean and sleek as the weapons themselves, these digital photomontages which are output as large c-prints, imbue abstract decorative patterns with a subtle suggestiveness. On viewing an image of hundreds of bullets packed tightly in marching rows within the rectangle of a photograph, we may find ourselves suddenly thinking of an army of helmeted soldiers on parade. Our contemporary fascination/repulsion with violence is surely reflected in our response to such images.
Text by Carl Hazelwood


The right to carry and use weapons is part of being American - to some people.
Such opinions, as well as the enormous amount of gun related incidents and the accessibility of weapons have inspired this work.
Guns, barrels, chambers and bullets are digitally arranged in metaphorical and symbolic forms to explore and question ideas and fantasies that are attached to weapons.
Text by Heike Bartels

1997 Synchronicity Space
1997 Unfinished, New York
1990 Portraits of Artists, Michael Wardell Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

1997 "Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn", Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
1997 "New American Talent: The Thirteenth Exhibition", Art Gallery, Denton
1997 and CenterSpace, Austin, Texas, selected by Robert Storr
1997 "Art on Paper", Weatherspoon Art Gallery; The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
1997 "Drei Wünsche", Heike Bartels, Robert Hartmann, Heinz Zolper, Köln Präsentation, Germany
1997 "Remix", MMC Gallery, New York
1997 "New York Drawers", The Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles, The Gasworks Gallery, London, U.K.
1997 "Color Photography", AU goes places..., New York
1996 "Artist in theMarketplace: Sixteenth Annual Exhibition",The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
1996 The Art Exchange Show, Pierogi 2000, New York
1996 Art Online @ http://www.interporl.net/~jimtuite
1995 "Considering Peaceful Resolutions", Visual Arts Gallery, New York
1994 "2009", Camera Obscura School of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
1992 "Collections", Opening of RMIT Permanent Photography Collection Melbourne, Australia
1991 "Six Women Framed", RMIT Art Gallery Melbourne, Australia
1990 "1989 Graduates", Lighthouse Gallery Melbourne, Australia

1998 Indivdual Photographer's Fellowship Grant, Aaron Siskind Foundation, New York
1989 Winner, Agfa Competition "Expressions"
1998 Finalist "Australian Institute of Professional Photographers",
1998 Best Final Year Student Award

RMIT Permanent Photographic Collection, Melbourne


Publications
The 1991 Australian Art Diary, Prendergast Publishers, Melbourne, Australia
New Art Three, The Craftmen's Press, NSW, Australia
Artist in the Marketplace, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Catalogue
New American Talent: The Thirteenth Exhibition, Catalogue
"Number One with a Bullet", Susan Hamburger, Waterfront Week, 07.19.1997