By the Future Monument to Ozymandias. (Original title unknown), c. 1970s and 2025
Uninvited collaboration with unknown artist

Oil on canvas with paper cut-out of a miniature acrylic painting of Flaco
14 x 18 inches (35.56 x 45.72 cm)

Courtesy of the artist

Selected by Adam Boxer 

Heide Hatry is a German-born, New York-based artist whose work transforms real-world materials into meditations on memory and mortality. Best known for employing discarded, disdained, or taboo material, her art continually excavates the hidden significance of matter itself.

A former rare bookseller, Hatry has exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. She has created more than 250 unique artist's books, edited dozens of art publications, and four of her major projects have been documented in monographs. Her most recent book, Flacofolio, “a remarkable encounter between a people and a bird, and between a poet and a visual artist, is also a beautiful ode to New York City.” (Phillip Lopate)
For The World Is The Work, Hatry presents By the Future Monument to Ozymandias, an Oil on canvas painting with a glued-on paper cut-out of a miniature acrylic painting of Flaco the European eagle owl who escaped from Central Park Zoo. The painting was part of her Only at Dusk. A Tribute to Flaco the Owl solo exhibition at Ivy Brown Gallery in 2025.

She is the founder of Icons in Ash, an ongoing social art project devoted to transforming our relationship to grief, and Polar Bear Fest, a Lumbung-inspired initiative that brings communities together through art while addressing the climate crisis.

Hatry is currently creating a permanent large-scale installation for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania, scheduled to debut in 2028.