Bio
St. Leon’s visual language explores the very nature of perception, while aiming to convey movement and continuity. He is constantly searching for new techniques that will best capture his visual and conceptual ideas relating to space, time and motion. Either his compositions start out as familiar settings, soon morph into abstraction, or the subject matter stays somewhat true to life - the narrative context remains rather obscure. His latest works take ambiguous references to urban landscapes and mechanical structures, and portray them in painterly abstraction.
Throughout the past decade St Leon developed a new technique which resembles a weave, employing oil paint to create thread-like patterns. Experimenting with this technique he sought to portray movement on canvas. It also allows the under-painting to show through and be part of the narrative of the painting as a totality.
Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1957. Les St. Leon comes from generations of circus performers, artists and acrobats. St. Leon's heritage has helped shape his attention to color, form and lines. He has subsequently refined his own visual and conceptual vocabulary that emerged through his focus on the points of intersection between sculpture, painting, music and dance.
St Leon received a B.A in Fine Art from Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL. He continued his studies in Computer Animation in San Francisco Computer Art Institute, San Francisco, CA. St Leon splits his time between his studio and working in commercial art. Some of these landmark projects include work done for Disney and Universal Studios. Apart from this work, St Leon exhibitions include "Visual Culture", CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea, Group (2020); "Seen And Unseen", Collective Gallery, Woodstock, NY, Group (2018); “Memories”, Loosenart Magazine/MILLEPIANI Art Space, Rome, Italy, Group (2018); “Under 18 Inches”, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY, Group (2017); "Wish You Were Here 16", A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Group (2017); “Nudes”, Ybor City Warehouse Gallery, Tampa, FL , Group (2012 ); "Preservation Jar", Artness Gallery, En Shemer, Israel, Duo (2011).
Les St Leon lives and works in New York City, NY.
