Heidi Grace Acuña (HGA/they/she) is an artist who “creates to live” for their mental health, for their communities, and to honor their ancestral calling. Born in Federal Way, Washington to immigrant Ilokano-Filipino parents, and raised on O‘ahu since one year old, Heidi felt disconnected to a true sense of home and belonging. Now, Heidi makes art that finds the beauty in the multiplicities, imperfections, and expansiveness of identity, culture, gender, and home. Heidi’s dimensional work in ceramic sculpture, textiles, painting, illustration, printmaking, and photography reveal anxiously curious, and deep investigations of universal human experiences, which are inspired by the diverse tropical colors of her island homes, living in diaspora, and the need for connection.

HGA is a 2024 NWFF x Warhol Foundation Collective Power Fund recipient , a 2024 Emerging Artist Scholarship finalist for Gallery 110, and a 2024 Fruit Bowl (queer fashion competition) finalist. Heidi is a published artist whose work is part of the North Seattle College Permanent Art Collection. In 2022, they received the Edwin T. Pratt Scholarship and had their first solo show (LUSH) at Western Washington University.

As a teaching artist, public speaker, and community collaborator, Heidi has worked with Bellevue Arts Museum, Gage Academy, The Feels Foundation, Tacoma Sunday Market, Seattle Public Schools, North Seattle College, Velocity Dance Center, and On The Boards. Heidi is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director for the QT arts collective House of Kilig (HoK) where she collaborates as a costume designer and installation artist.

Heidi holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and Art History minor from the University of Washington and an AA in English from North Seattle College. Heidi currently lives and works between Seattle, Los Angeles, and O’ahu.

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I am in reverence and gratitude to the land and First Peoples of the lands I settle on: the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People; the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash People; and the ʻāina and Kānaka Maoli of the Kingdom of Hawai’i. I am also thankful for the work of my ancestors and their continued guidance. All of this and so much more, continues to inspire my ever expanding work which I hope contributes as a manifestation of liberation for all.