Associate Professor of Art
BFA - University of Montevallo, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MFA - Ohio  University
E-mail: bheu@semo.edu
(573) 651-2721
Office: Memorial Hall 010

Benjie Heu has a master's of fine art degree in ceramics from Ohio University (1998) and a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Montevallo (1994) with an emphasis in ceramics, sculpture and printmaking. In between degrees, he studied ceramics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (1995).

The ceramics of Benjie Heu expresses a personal narrative with the most outlandish adventures accounted with an eye fixed on the bare essentials. Battles against time, against the obstacles that prevent the fulfillment of desire or the repossession of something cherished but lost are themes that inspire him. Revealing truth and humor in the face of horror and the seemingly absurd is his answer. Benjie maintains an active exhibition record of solo, group, juried and invitational exhibitions. Selected exhibitions include Diverse Domain: Contemporary North American Ceramics at the Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan; the NCECA Clay National in San Diego and Baltimore; the National Clay Symposium Exhibition at the Lawrence Arts Center; the Ceramic Sculpture National Juried Exhibition at Nicholls State University; Plan B at the Mellwood Arts Center for NCECA Louisville; Ohio University Ceramics; 1990 Until Now at NCECA Louisville; Ink and Clay National at California State Polytechnic University; Visions in Clay at the University of the Pacific; Supernatural Soire’e at the Di Rosa Preserve in Napa; Ceramics Invitational at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach; Gut Feeling at Exploding Head Gallery in Sacramento; California Dreamin’ at the ASU Art Museum Ceramic Research Center; Visions Within at Beth Allison Gallery in Kansas City; and, Character Development at Hoffman LaChance Contemporary in St. Louis.

Benjie Heu has over ten years of teaching experience at the university level and has an extensive knowledge of contemporary and traditional ceramics that he generously shares with his students. Benjie believes a solid foundation of ceramic materials and processes will allow a student’s creativity to grow unencumbered, thus enabling the student to ask critical questions regarding content and historical relevance. His teaching philosophy is committed to energize students toward a highly individualized body of work, whether it is the vessel or ceramic sculpture. Benjie glazes and fires his work in the ceramic facility, allowing the students to see how a professional artist works and thinks and to follow him through his creative process. Being active in the field of ceramics insures that the art students of Southeast receive the best education possible.

Benjie Heu relocated from northern California and joined the Art Department in 2005. His personal interests include drinking coffee, trying new foods, listening to loud music, laughing out loud, reading comic books, anything Tarantino, and playing Transformers and Barbies with his two rascally children, Dylan and Camilla.

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