Henry Payer, Jr.

Sioux City, Iowa

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Henry Payer, Jr.

Headshot of Artist Henry Payer Jr

Henry Payer is a Ho Chunk artist who works primarily with collage and mixed media. Payer’s narrative compositions utilize Indigenous cartographic methods with traditional aspects of spatial representation and symbolism while appropriating European modernist models of cubism, spatial distortion and collage. Born in Sioux City, IA in 1986, Payer received a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM in 2008. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison obtaining a MFA in 2013. Henry has exhibited his work at locations such as the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln, NE; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO; and Overture Galleries located in Madison, WI. He currently lives in Sioux City, IA.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2022

Website / Social Links

My intent is the creation of a contemporary aesthetic that reflects, revitalizes and reintegrates Ho Chunk visual art forms. By utilizing extensive research in combination with inherent perspective, I am able to recover, document and expand contemporary Ho Chunk methods of artistic expression. I aim to contribute to the revision of our history through this active depiction of the Ho Chunk narrative, creating works that address our cultural survivance and visual continuum.”