Exhibit Title: "Words/Spirits" Date: Sept. 25 to Oct. 30 Where: C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall, University of California, Davis Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment Reception: 5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25 Artists: Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya The C.N. Gorman Museum opens its 1992-93 season in its new exhibition space in Hart Hall with a two-man exhibition of works by Oklahoma artists Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds and Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya. "Words/Spirits" focuses on the use and power of language and the resulting relationship of native people with native and non-native languages. Heap of Birds and Nevaquaya use brilliant and deep colors to portray their kinship with their native homelands in abstract paintings and installations of text to define and affirm their identities. Heap of Birds is well known for combining words and pictures that speak with anger, humor and reflection on Native American history and the myths and perceptions of Native Americans held by non-natives. He will be represented in "Words/Spirits" by works from his exhibit and artist-in-residency at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. While there, he completed a new series of works, "Neuf Series #36," and a fabric translation of the series on silk jacquard scarves. "Neuf" means four times in the Cheyenne language and also refers to the belief that something must be done four times as an offering. Heap of Birds described the series as "paintings that come out of the land itself, my interpretation of what I see every day on the reservation." Heap of Birds also will be represented by "Wall Lyrics," an installation of 15 pastels on paper that, according to the artist, "is based on the premise of a Cheyenne man as an individual rather than a general Native American. America still thinks of Native Americans collectively, but there are tribal breakdowns, societal breakdowns, clan breakdowns and so forth." Heap of Birds, of Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestry, teaches at the University of Oklahoma. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. He received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award 1989 and a regional National Endowment for the Arts award in painting in 1988. Most recently, he received a Regents Award for Superior Research and Creative Activity from the University of Oklahoma. Nevaquaya, of Yuchi and Commanche ancestry, studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. and the University of Albuquerque. His work has been exhibited at Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Five Civilized Tribes Museum and the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. Nevaquaya's poetry also has been published in several collections. This year, he received the Diane DeCorah Memorial Award for Poetry from the North American Native Authors First Book Award for Poetry.