ARTIST NEWS | COURTNEY M. LEONARD

COURTNEY M. LEONARD
on view in New York & Massachusetts

Courtney M. Leonard, The New Transcendence, Gif

Courtney Leonard, “BREACH: Logbook 24 | TRANSCENDENCE”, 2024, Installation at Friedman Benda, New York, NY, Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Courtney M. Leonard. Timothy Doyon Photography

COURTNEY M. LEONARD IN MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

Our first introduction to Courtney M. Leonard in 2020 was BREACH: Logbook 20|NEBULOUS, a large scale multimedia installation commissioned by the Hood Museum, Hanover, NH. In 2021 we invited her to participate in MELTING POINT, an exhibition of work in ceramics and glass co-curated by Ferrin Contemporary and Heller Gallery.

Leonard’s work in that exhibition and others, represented a metaphor of climate change. These works based in deep, scientific research, garnered public recognition, museum acquisitions and invitations to create new, site responsive works throughout the country. In 2023, a mid-career survey solo exhibition  Courtney M. Leonard: Logbook 2004–2023 at the Heckscher Museum was held in collaboration with a site specific outdoor sculpture, BREACH: Logbook 23 | ROOT, now on long term view at Planting Fields. These opportunities brought her from her studio in Minnesota back to Long Island, close to home and her community in Shinnecock, NY.

With each installation and exhibition, Leonard draws on knowledge, experience and her personal Indigenous perspective. These works are composed and presented in interdisciplinary media that use metaphor and abstraction to illustrate consequences of social policies from historic to present. Color, form and multiple object compositions allude to land, water and the cultural landscape in the regions where she engaged in collaborations.

In 2024, Leonard’s recent work is being featured in exhibitions opening at galleries and museums in New York and Massachusetts. In addition, works in numerous permanent public collections of American art are on view throughout the US. Read more in today’s newsletter to learn more and follow links to preview exhibitions, press and recorded videos.

Leslie Ferrin, director, Ferrin Contemporary

THE NEW TRANSCENDENCE
curated by Glenn Adamson

Group Exhibition
Exhibition including work by 6 designers: Ini Archibong, Andrea Branzi, Stephen Burks, Najla El Zein, Courtney M. Leonardand Samuel Ross. 

Friedman Benda
New York, NY
on view through February 24, 2024

Press
Glenn Adamson and Friedman Benda examine spirituality in contemporary design, Wallpaper Mag, January 16, 2024

Curator Essay
Essay for The New Transcendence By Glenn Adamson

Courtney M. Leonard, “BREACH: Logbook 24 | TRANSCENDENCE, 2024, installation at Friedman Benda, New York, NY, Timothy Doyon Photography

ON VIEW & UPCOMING

COURTNEY M. LEONARD

Featured In
RIVERS FLOW / ARTISTS CONNECT
American artists from the 1820s to the present day explore and illuminate our profound, symbiotic relationship with significant waterways, such as the Hudson River, the Susquehanna, and the Missouri, as well as symbolic representations. Group exhibition also featuring works by Paul Scott Jason Walker.

Hudson River Museum
Yonkers, NY
on view February 2, 2024 – September 1, 2024

Courtney M. Leonard,  BREACH: Logbook 21 | CONVOKE | SUBSISTENCE Blue Dawn Study, detail

BREACH: Logbook 24 | STACCATO

Solo Exhibition
University Museum of Contemporary Art
on view February 14 – December 9, 2024

Opening Reception
Wednesday, February 21, 5:00 -7:00pm

UMass Fine Arts Center
Amherst, MA

BREACH: Logbook 24| SCRIMSHAW

Group Exhibition
New Bedford Whaling Museum
New Bedford, MA
on view June 13 – November 3, 2024

Conversation with Artist Courtney M. Leonard
October 4, 5:00-7:00pm

Courtney M. Leonard, “BREACH: Logbook 23 | BREACH #2”, 2022

ART AND DESIGN: 1900 TO NOW

Group Exhibition
Drawing together works on paper, costume and textiles, painting, sculpture, photography, and decorative arts and design, the installation reflects the interconnectedness of the disciplines RISD teaches and the cross pollination among art forms and media that can influence how artists work.

RISD Museum
Providence, RI
on view through June 9, 2024

Installation view of Courtney M. Leonard, BREACH: Logbook 21 | NEBULOUS at RISD Museum

EBB/FLOW

Group Exhibition
Addressing the violence of separation, the practice of keeping memories and the invasive effects of colonialism, Pritika ChowdhryChotsani Elaine Dean and Courtney M. Leonard contemplate the past, the present and possible futures in their large scale, ceramic-based installation works.

BREACH interview with Eileen Bass

Weisman Art Museum
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
on view through May 31, 2025

Courtney M. Leonard, Breach Logbook 22: Cull (detail), installation view, 2022, Weisman Art Museum commission.

ON THIS GROUND: BEING AND BELONGING IN AMERICA

Group Exhibition
Bringing two extraordinary collections of Native American and American art together for the first time in our institution’s history, this long-term installation celebrates artistic achievements across time, space, and worldviews.

Peabody Essex Museum
Salem, MA
ongoing

Courtney Leonard, ABUNDANCE (Red Algae) and ABUNDANCE (Red Foam), 2016, in “On this Ground: Being and Belonging in America” on view at the Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

COURTNEY M. LEONARD: LOGBOOK 2004–2023
 

The Heckscher Museum of Art and Planting Fields Foundation have jointly published the first book about nationally recognized artist Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock, b. 1980). It represents both the retrospective exhibition COURTNEY M. LEONARD: Logbook 2004-2023 on view at The Heckscher Museum, and her site-specific installation at Planting Fields, BREACH: Logbook 2023|Root. The pages are filled with insights into Leonard’s sources of inspiration, creative processes, and original interpretations.

$25 + shipping
45 pages, softcover

ARTIST NEWS

Ferrin Contemporary’s newsletters connect artists, collectors, art professionals and the media with exhibitions and opportunities to learn more about artist practices, works on view and new work taking place in the studios.

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