biography

Zoe Leonard was born in 1961 in Liberty, New York. She lives and works in New York.

She works with photography, sculptures and installations in a conceptual and a poetic view on the world; often questioning the evolution of society. During the Eighties and Nineties she was activist with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and the queer activist art collectives Gang and Fierce Pussy. Several works by Leonard stemmed from the feeling of loss, also derived from friends’ death caused by AIDS. Fundamental themes in her research are the urban and natural landscapes and their contrasts, personal and collective memories, migration, gender. Her work is able to make the viewer rethink the act of looking itself, how moments and situations can compose a narration.

“[…] I think the work is instinctive.” For Leonard a photograph “[…] is a subjective view. It’s a picture. […] It’s an object. It’s not reality. It’s not truth. It’s a work on paper and I made it. This is my truth. And my truth is no more true than anyone else’s.”. Through her works one can see how the act of observing can be dense and every moment anew.

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Zoe Leonard was born in 1961 in Liberty, New York. She lives and works in New York.

She works with photography, sculptures and installations in a conceptual and a poetic view on the world; often questioning the evolution of society. During the Eighties and Nineties she was activist with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and the queer activist art collectives Gang and Fierce Pussy. Several works by Leonard stemmed from the feeling of loss, also derived from friends’ death caused by AIDS. Fundamental themes in her research are the urban and natural landscapes and their contrasts, personal and collective memories, migration, gender. Her work is able to make the viewer rethink the act of looking itself, how moments and situations can compose a narration.

“[…] I think the work is instinctive.” For Leonard a photograph “[…] is a subjective view. It’s a picture. […] It’s an object. It’s not reality. It’s not truth. It’s a work on paper and I made it. This is my truth. And my truth is no more true than anyone else’s.”. Through her works one can see how the act of observing can be dense and every moment anew.

She has taken part in several solo exhibitions such as: Al Río/To the River, Mudam, The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City / Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (2022); Survey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York / MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); I want a president, High Line Art, New York (2016); Zoe Leonard: Analogue, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Photographs, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2009); You See I am here after all, Dia:Beacon, New York (2008); Photographs, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2008); Photographs, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich (2007); Vienna Secession, Vienna (1997); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (1997).

A selected list of group shows include: Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery, London (2020); Queer Forms, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minnesota (2019); Histories of our time. On Collective and Personal Narratives, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2019); The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement, The Phillips Collection, Washington (2019); Carnegie International, 57th Edition, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2018); The Restless Earth, La Triennale di Milano, Milan (2017); Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Met Breuer, New York (2016); L’image papillon, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2013).

She took part in Documenta IX (1992) and XII (2007); Whitney Biennials 1993, 1997, 2014.

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images

Untitled Aerial, 1988/2008

Gelatin silver print

60,6 × 43,8 cm

Untitled Aerial, 1988/2008

Gelatin silver print

60,5 × 43,8 cm

Untitled, 1989/2008

Gelatin silver print

92,5 × 65 cm

Untitled, 2016

Two silver gelatine prints

40 × 33 cm

August 6, frame 19, 2012

Gelatin silver print

70 × 50 cm

August 6, frame 7, 2011-2012

Gelatin Silver print

60 × 86 cm

April 7, frame 30, 2011

Gelatin Silver print

40,6 × 56,8 cm

February 12, frame 6, 2011

Gelatin Silver print

34,9 × 49,5 cm

January 15, frame 12, 2012

Gelatin silver print

27,8 × 33,9 cm

January 15, frame 10, 2012

Gelatin silver print

27,8 × 33,9 cm

Roll #4, 2006/16

C-Print

55,9 × 47 cm

Roll #18, 2006/16

C-Print

55,9 × 47 cm

Vine, 2002/03

C-print

50,8 × 73,6 cm

Jordan in the Hallway, 1986/97

Gelatin silver print

39,4 × 28,2 cm

Untitled, 1990/97

Gelatin silver print

31,8 × 44,9 cm

public exhibitions

Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

Paris, France

Al río / To the River

15.10.2022 – 29.1.2023

Vue de l’exposition Zoe Leonard. Al río / To the River, 15.10.2022 — 29.01.2023, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris © Photo: Pierre Antoine

MUDAM

Luxembourg

Al río / To the River

26.2 – 6.6.2022

Vue de l’exposition Zoe Leonard. Al río / To the River, 26.02.2022 — 06.06.2022, Mudam Luxembourg © Photo: Rémi Villaggi

Centre Pompidou-Metz

Metz, France

Face à Arcimboldo

29.5 – 22.11.2021

Photo: Marc Domage

Institute of Contemporary Art

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified

13.9 – 22.12.2019

arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: fierce pussy amplified, September 13 – Dec 22, 2019, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Constance Mensh.

Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève

Genève

A Few Things I cannot leave behind

27.2 – 21.4.2019

Photo: Mathilda Olmi

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Museum of Contemporary Art

Los Angeles

Zoe Leonard: Survey

11.11.2018 – 25.3.2019

Installation view of Zoe Leonard: Survey, November 11, 2018–March 25, 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, photo by Brian Forrest

Whitney Museum of American Art

New York

Zoe Leonard: Survey

2.3 – 10.6.2018

Photo: Ron Amstutz

Mumok

Vienna

Class Reunion: Works from the Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann Collection

23.6 – 11.11.2018

© mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, photographs Christian Benesch

La Triennale di Milano

Milan

The Restless Earth

28.4 – 20.8.2017

Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia

press

Zoe Leonard's Al Río/To the River

Jennie Waldow

The Brooklyn Rail

May 5, 2022

Zoe Leonard's Conceptual Landscapes

Jessica Lynne

Frieze

May, 2022

Zoe Leonard’s Elegiac Images of Downtown New York

Shiv Kotecha

Aperture

April 15, 2021

Zoe Leonard's Al Río/To the River

Roxana Marcoci

MoMA Magazine

October 26, 2020

Zoe Leonard

Fi Churchman

ArtReview

December 2018

Zoe Leonard

Chris Wiley

Frieze

May 2018

Zoe Leonard

Molly Prentiss

Interview

September 2016

Zoe Leonard

Raffaella Cortese - Milano

Marinella Paderni

Flash Art

Summer 2012

Zoe Leonard: You see I am here after all by Marc Joseph Berg

Marc Joseph Berg

BOMB

April 1, 2012

publications

Zoe Leonard. Al Río/To the River

Johnson, Tim (ed.)

Mudam Luxembourg; Hatje Cantz

Luxembourg, Berlin

2022

Zoe Leonard: Survey

Bennett Simpson

Prestel

New York

2018

Zoe Leonard: Available Light

Edited by Karen Kelly and Barbara Schröder

Ridinghouse and Dancing Foxes Press

Brooklyn

2014

Zoe Leonard: You See I Am Here After All

Edited by Lynne Cooke, Karen Kelly, and Barbara Schröder

Dia Art Foundation

New York

2010

Zoe Leonard. Photographs

Edited by Urs Staher

Steidl

Göttingen

2008

Wiener Secession: Zoe Leonard

Zoe Leonard, Anna Blume

Wiener Secession

Wien

1997

Kunsthalle Basel: Zoe Leonard

Peter u.a. Pakesch

Schwabe

Basel

1997

video


Curator Suzanne Cotter about Zoe Leonard's exhibition "Al río / To the River" at Mudam

2022


Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: Zoe Leonard with José Esparza Chong Cuy

2021

Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, introduced by Mark Lee.


Zoe Leonard: "Survey"

2019

Kavior Moon discusses Zoe Leonard’s "Survey" exhibition at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles. Video by SCI-Arc Channel.

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