Dig In Magazine Interview with
New York-Based Artist, Brian Leo

New York-based artist, Brian Leo, studied art at Rutgers University/Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick New Jersey. He is known for his Pop, Surrealist, Expressionist and sometimes Minimalist artistic expressions, which often communicate political and cultural turmoil and senarios. His artwork is inspired by personal experience, media, pop culture, technology and mundane things, social observations, as well as timeless themes, such as human greed. Brian Leo is a veteran to Fountain Miami and exhibited there this last December 2010. I caught up with Brian after Art Basel Miami Beach to talk about his beginnings as an artist, his artistic influences and what exhibitions he has planned for 2011.

Dig In Magazine: Where did you grow up and where are you based now?

Brian Leo: I grew up in a suburb of New Jersey near Giant’s Stadium (10 miles form NYC). The dude that has sex with the apple pie in that movie was in my Italian class in high school. NYC has been my home since 2001. I live in the East Village and my art studio is in Chelsea. When I first moved to NYC, for the first few years, I lived and worked out of my apartment on W128th Street in Harlem.

DIM: Describe your artistic style:

BL: It’s a mash up of Pop, Surrealism, Expressionism and sometimes Minimalism.

DIM: What was your first experience with art?

BL: I started my first series of paintings when I was 16. But of course, I remember painting blades of grass for a “Three Little Billy Goats” play in the first grade. I remember the teacher for some reason didn’t let me paint the backdrop with the other kids and I got scolded when I tried to join. I had to paint it by myself after the other kids sat back down (probably cause there was no room or something)—but I remember thinking my blades of grass kicked ass—I remember pulling off this gesture to produce an effect that looked like real grass and enjoying it and then Ms. Andrews told me to stop because I started covering up the other kids work and filling up the whole thing. Wow - I haven’t thought about that in a while. I also remember losing a valentines day –heart contest at the town library. My mom helped me and for some reason we only had black construction paper or something—and the heart was black and I felt surprised we lost.

DIM: Early on, who was it that influenced you to become an artist?

BL: Painting in the beginning for me was an emotional catharsis...being a teen and dealing with personal tragedies, such as lost love, domestic violence, financial instability, illness and a parent who was bed-ridden for 5 years. When I was 17, I got to see a Picasso and Dali show at the Met. That I really dug.

DIM: What is your training in art?

BL: I attended Rutgers University/Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick New Jersey. It’s a college town. I haven’t been back since. I have mixed feelings because they kicked me out my senior year (but I graduated the next year). I lost my tuition and had to pay the school a $2000 fine. That school tries to be so liberal that it ends up being conservative. Most recently on the news, it’s where the teen who jumped off the GWB had been attending. Well there’s some history at Rutgers: George Segal, Alan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Martha Rosler, Raphael Ortiz, Geoff Hendrix had taught there at some certain points.

DIM: What in life inspires you to create art?

BL: I try to meditate on my brief existence in this world. I am inspired by personal experience, media, pop culture, technology and mundane things, social observations, as well as timeless themes, such as human greed.

DIM: What and who are your influences (past and present)?

BL: I admire work from Andy Warhol, Hieronymos Bosh, Barry McGee, Claes Oldenburg, Chris Johanson, Dan Perjovschi, Marcel Dzama, Joe Bradley, Barnett Newman, Carroll Dunham, Amy Sillman, Tracey Emin, Louis Bourgeois, Paul Klee, Yayoi Kusama, Basquiat, Scharf, Philip Guston, Cory Archangel, Swoon, Hannah Wilke, Chinatsu Ban, and Manuel Ocampo.

DIM: What is the deeper meaning behind your art?

BL: I guess it reveals a hidden truth of sadness that exists in the private and public spheres with themes of alienation, technology, the environment, oppression of women and minorities, stereotypes, gluttony, injustice, tragedy, murder, addiction, manipulation, propaganda, powerlessness... It’s like the world that children are not conscious of, so in a way there is a childlike-naivety/playfullness represented in the work particularly through bright festive colors, which people generally associate with happiness/innocence. I work within the paradigm of contradiction as far as colors and content are concerned.

DIM: What do you hope to communicate to your audience through your paintings?

BL: When I show my installations, sometimes up to 500 pieces at a time, I’d like viewers to bounce from all of theses different ideas and take time to personally reflect on them and make their own free associations. Without my paintings, they’re ideas that I couldn’t express at a single moment if you sat with me for an hour and had a conversation. The work is non-linear, so ideas from the past, present, and future are fragmented and mashed together. I also spend a significant amount of time at my exhibitions, so there is also an aspect of story telling or the sharing of insight which usually allows for a reciprocation of thoughts and ideas between the viewer and myself which I value.

DIM: Is politics and culture a major factor in your work?

BL: Sure of course, tripping on geopolitics and the political climate in The U.S.A..like Abraham Lincoln advocating gay rights, and everyone connecting J.F..K and Lincoln with Obama, but omitting the word assassination, and Angelina Jolie adopting a thousand North Korean babies, and unemployed Wall Street brokers playing Grand Theft Auto at home, and K-Mart and Walgreen supplying ammo for massacres, and man-made, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes created to harvest organs to sell on the black market, and thermite detonating the W.T.C. I like to entertain conspiracy theories and fabrications because a lot of what children are taught in social studies class is equally as absurd.

DIM: What medium do you like to work with?

BL: I prefer mixed media on canvas. Painting requires less process than other mediums, so I like that aspect. It’s also an ancient art form if we think back to the Lascaux cave paintings. People painting what they observed and experienced outside.

DIM: What artists do you admire?

BL: I’m not a huge Keith Haring fan, but I remember reading about all of the massive projects he took on after he found out he had A.I.D.S. in the late-80s. Painting tons of huge murals at children’s hospitals and setting up foundations, raising awareness of the disease and making work until he couldn’t. That’s admirable.

DIM: Where have you exhibited?

BL: My paintings have been exhibited in venues, such as the Leo Kesting Gallery, Capla Kesting Fine Arts, Christina Ray Gallery, The Philips De Pury Art Auction, Index Art Center, Umbrella Arts Projects, DUMBO Arts Center, Front Room Gallery, The Gaga Arts Center, Jonathan Shorr Gallery, Tribes Gallery, Pierro Gallery, McCaig Welles Gallery, CBGB’s 313 Gallery and numerous art fairs including Scope NY, Fountain NY/Miami, Bridge Chicago/Miami, Next /Chicago, Convergence/NY, and Governor’s Island/NY.

DIM: What did you present at Art Basel Miami Beach-Fountain Miami 2010?

BL: I was designated a wall to install my work, as opposed to having my own booth, but the installation was highlighted by a 7 foot Mad Max cut-out shrouded in a niqab (the media just refers to it as a burqa) and a 6 foot painting of Osama Bin Laden with the word who written on his headdress.

DIM: I noticed that you’ve worked with various commercial galleries, how did you begin working with these galleries?

BL: In general, I would say I decided to show anywhere like one night shows in bars/ cafes, apts., outside on the sidewalk and went to shows and met people and volunteered and interned and supported. That’s how I got started showing in galleries.

DIM: What are your favorite galleries?

BL: I like a lot of the galleries that show at the Fountain Art Fair www.fountainexhibit.com like Grace Exhibition Space, Front Room, McCaig Welles, DCKT, Milk Gallery, Greg Haberny, Tinca Art, among others, as well as Clair Oliver, Sperone Weswater, Ronald Feldman, Team , Canada, Zach Feuer,...some galleries that have closed—Deitch Projects, Jack The Pelican, Bellwhether, and Cinders.

DIM: What is your strategy as an artist and getting ahead in this competitive world of art?

BL: I heard this cool idea about how some artists come up with a name or a tag and use stickers, wheat paste, spray paint, or markers and go around the city in public and shamelessly promote themselves (being sarcastic). Maybe I should try that. Naagh – I wish I could...I don’t know---update my website once in a while?

DIM: What is your goal as an artist?

BL: To continue to make meaningful art, while gaining more exposure.

DIM: What do you have planned for 2011?

BL: I have a solo show at The Christina Ray Gallery in NYC on March 17, 2011. www.christinaray.com

Tentative upcoming shows:

1. Fountain Art Fair NYC March 2011 www.fountainexhibit.com

2. Christina Ray Gallery "Burqa Rocka" March 2011

3. RAW Art Gallery Oakland March 2011

4. Flux Factory "War Show" Brooklyn March 2011

5. Next Art Fair (Art Chicago) May 2011

6. Affordable Art Fair NYC May 2011

7. Art Hong Kong NYC May 2011

8. Fountain Art Fair Miami December 2011

DIM: What do you like to do outside of art?

BL: I like to go to the beach and get pummeled by strong waves. I like the disorienting feeling. I like beaches where the water is up to my neck standing and I can jump 4 feet up when a huge wave comes. I like when waves send me tumbling back to the beach and when they drag me out into the ocean unwillingly. Oh and recently, I have taken up investing in stocks independently. If you pick the right one and you’re lucky, it’s fun to watch money grow without doing anything. Of course, it’s no fun the other way around. Just gambling in the end.

DIM: Thanks so much for sharing with us at Dig In Magazine! Best of luck with your artwork in 2011!