Born in New York City in 1953, Leslie Lew grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey and Chicago. Her father was a well-known advertising executive and her subject matter was influenced by the commercial ads and products that surrounded her. Her underlying theme deals with childhood memories, growing up in America. She examines American culture and how it reflects on our tastes historically โ good and bad.
Lew received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is where her idea of โsculpted oilsโ first developed, manifested through her supermarket paintings. Inspired by her fatherโs work in advertising, the product labels and aisles in the supermarkets were a wealth of inspiration for the artist. Pop-culture items like food packaging and comic books became the foundation of Lewโs subject matter. Using icons like Wonder Woman or Dick and Jane, Lew reaches back through the pendulum of American culture, wringing out childlike moments that many have too-soon forgotten.
While Lew became famous for her work in the East Village, being in Chicago prepared her for her future transplant to New York. While at the SAIC under the advisement of Ray Yoshida, Lew worked amidst the Hairy Who, a pop art styled collection of artists under the umbrella of the Chicago Imagists.
During her graduate work, she was invited to participate in the SUNY/ Semester in New York City, a program much like the Whitney Museumโs, where she was given a studio with weekly critiques by respected artists of the time. She ended up staying in NYC and had her first solo show at Sensory Evolution Gallery as one of the artists from the East Village Art Movement. Lewโs idols for artistic inspiration are Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Peter Max, and Fra Filippo Lippi. Sheโs inspired by the unique attributes of each artist, pulling from pulp fiction and pop culture, her liberal use of color, and warm, nostalgic values.
Lew lives and works near Peekskill, N.Y. Her works have toured in museum exhibitions sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon Museum and the Guggenheim (upon whose walls her paintings have hung) and sheโs shown in the best โhigh endโ New York galleries next to works by Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Man Ray. She has been a professor at the College of New Rochelle, and was selected for the Westchester Bienniel 2006, and 2008. She received a grant for a childrenโs book she wrote and illustrated called, โBukiโs Garden,โ which inspired free workshops held at childrenโs hospitals and learning centers in 2013. Her work has been included in art book publications, โEncyclopedia of Living Artists in America,โ โEast Village: A Guide, A Documentary,โ โEast Village 86,โ and The Guggenheimโs โComic Release โ Negotiating Identity for a New Generation.โ She was named โArtist of the Yearโ in 2009 by Liquitex Paint.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Sofia, Bulgaria. She recently has been included in the book โThe Martin Z. Margulies Collection,โ published by DAP, outlining Marty Marguliesโ extensive 20th and 21st century art collection.
Exhibitions
1985 Sensory Evolution Gallery, NYC
1986 Sensory Evolution Gallery, NYC
1987 Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, NYC
1990 Margulies/Taplin Gallery, Bal Harbor, FL
โYou are Here,โ College Center Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY
1992 Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY
OK Harris Gallery, NYC
1993 Vered Gallery
1995 Margulies/Taplin Gallery, Miami, FL
1996 Light Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1997 Kravets Wehby Gallery, NYC
Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY
2001 โAmerican Icons,โ Chappaqua Library Gallery, Chappaqua, NY
2002 โThe Way We Wereโ, Sarah Lawrence College Gallery, Bronxville, NY
2003 Hamilton Halleries, Santa Monica, CA
Celia Hirsch Gallery, Chappaqua, NY
2007 The Lab Gallery/Westchester Biennial Exhibition Award, NYC
Katonah Museum of Art/โBukiโs Garden Workshopโ, Katonah, NY
Limon Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
โSnap, Crackle, and POP,โ Hendrick Hudson Free Library Exhibition Space, Montrose, NY
2008 โObjects โ In and Out!โ Flat Iron Gallery, Peekskill, NY
Museum Lectures
2008 โLove and War in Western Art โ Changes in Style,โ Marcy B. Freedman/Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
2000 โDรฉjร vu: Reworking the Past,โ Barbara Bloemink/Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Group Exhibitions
1981 โMultiples โ the Vicinity Artist Show.โ The Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1983 โThe School Show,โ The Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
โSeven Days of Creation.โ ABC No Rio Gallery, NYC.
1984 Jack Tilton Gallery, โA-Moore Store,โ NYC
โWomen on Art,โ Quando Gallery, NYC
1985 SOHO Center for the Visual Arts, NYC
โ57th Street between A and D,โ Holly Solomon Gallery, NYC
โSecond Annual Contemporary Exhibition,โ London, UK
โStarved for Art,โ Lowery Sims/Visual Arts Museum, NYC
โNew Art in New York,โ Parsons School of Design Gallery, NYC
1986 โThe East Village,โ Fashion Institute of Technology Gallery, NYC
โSmall Work by Major Thinkers,โ Bess Cutler Gallery, NYC
โPop Now,โ Sensory Evolution Gallery, NYC
โArtists Unite Against Nicaragua,โ El Bohio Gallery, NYC
1987 โA Sigh of Relief,โ Wilson Art Center, Rochester, NY
1989 โAlice (and Look Who Else) through the Looking Glass,โ Bernice Steinbaum Gallery/Traveling Museum
1991 โSubterranean Paintings,โ Henry Street Settlement Art Museum, NYC
1992 Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
Peconic Museum of Art, Peconic, NY
1995 Holtzer Museum of Art Invitational, Helena, MT
1996 The Alternative Museum National Showcase Exhibition, NYC
2001 โLocations Real and Imagined,โ Westchester Arts Council, White Plains, NY
2002 Westchester Arts Council Open Studios, White Plains, NY
2003 โComic Release Negotiating Identity for a New Generation,โ Carnegie-Mellon/Guggenheim Museum
2004 โLessedra Third World Print Annual,โ Lessedra Gallery and Contemporary Art Projects, Sofia, Bulgaria.
2005 โArtistic Fragments,โ Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Hamilton Galleries, Santa Monica, NY
โThe Parrish Art Museum 39th Juried Exhibition,โ South Hampton, NY
2006 Westchester Biennial 2006, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY
โPortrait Invitational,โ Blue Door Art Center, Yonkers, NY
โUnexpected Visitors,โ Maxwell Fine Arts, Peekskill, NY
2007 โInteriors,โ Limon Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
EYE/Visual Art Performance, Guest Artist, White Plains, NY
โPeekskill Open Studios,โ Peekskill Arts Council, Peekskill, NY
2008 Westchester Biennial 2008, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY