Abby Leigh
Encyclopedia
Abby Leigh is an American artist whose work has been described as recalling Yayoi Kusama
and the "visionary abstraction of Arthur Dove
". Her work is held in public collections internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, the Guggenheim Museum
and the Whitney Museum. She is represented by the Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York.
. She attended Brandeis University
where she majored in Theater Studies before attending Guildhall School of Music and Drama
. She worked briefly as an actress, touring with the National Company of Butterflies are Free
, and making numerous commercials. She began to take drawing lessons at the Art Students League in New York, where her teacher, Will Barnet
, encouraged her to become a painter.
and Italy
, as well as Denmark
and Belgium
, beginning with her exhibit at the Chapelle de Pénitants Blancs in Vence, France. In the decade following this first solo exhibition in France, Leigh's work was shown in solo exhibitions in Europe thirteen more times, and her career in New York began with a series of solo exhibitions at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery. When Leigh's first solo exhibition with the Betty Cunningham Gallery opened on January 27, 2005, the concentration of her career shifted to America, where her solo exhibitions have been concentrated in recent years.
, Art in America
, and The Brooklyn Rail
. Among the critical responses to her work are the following quotations:
″Abby Leigh's recent paintings and ink drawings (2005–07), brought together under the title "The Eye is the First Circle," cast Yayoi Kusama's obsessive infinity nets over the visionary abstraction of Arthur Dove….”Landscape for the Profoundly Myopic” …might well herald myopia as a condition to be cultivated by 21st-century artist-visionaries."
--Art in America
"What is perhaps most remarkable about the drawings in My Personal Atlas is the balance between the lyrically private and the analytic. The unfolding biomorphic flow of these drawings inevitably evokes the introspective surrealism of an artist like Arshile Gorky
…"
--The Brooklyn Rail
"The results resemble…pregnant Robert Ryman canvases that delicately balance the scientific and the artistic”
--Artnews
"…the deep sensibility that informs not only Leigh’s sense of her own practice but also the art that she creates: the radical intertwining of knowledge and feeling, the exquisite and sometimes surprising bodily sensations that as the mind proceeds to go deeper in."
--Kathryn A. Tuma
"Her inquiry between the micro- and macrocosmic results in two bodies of organic abstractions that coax the viewer into matrical contemplation."
--The Kurtenscharfer Papers
"…micro/macro…Specific and random, tough-minded and dreamy…paradoxes rendered credible through their studied neutrality."
--Tom Micchelli
"Like a court clerk, she documents, like a coroner, she cuts open, like a reporter, she examines everything[...]sensuous"
--Louis Cane
"One recalls the anthropometry of Yves Klein
, those impressions of nude models …God alone know what St. Francis of Assisi might have thought, faced with this type of decidedly orgasmic fioretti…"
--Pierre Restany
Yayoi Kusama
is a Japanese artist whose paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation...
and the "visionary abstraction of Arthur Dove
Arthur Dove
Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.-Youth and education:...
". Her work is held in public collections internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
and the Whitney Museum. She is represented by the Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York.
Education
Leigh was born and grew up in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She attended Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
where she majored in Theater Studies before attending Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
. She worked briefly as an actress, touring with the National Company of Butterflies are Free
Butterflies Are Free
Butterflies Are Free is a 1972 film based on a play by Leonard Gershe. The 1972 film was produced by M.J. Frankovich, released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Milton Katselas and adapted for the screen by Gershe. It was released on 6 July, 1972 in the USA.Goldie Hawn and Edward Albert starred...
, and making numerous commercials. She began to take drawing lessons at the Art Students League in New York, where her teacher, Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet is an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds.-Biography:...
, encouraged her to become a painter.
Work
Leigh's early career flourished in Europe, where she showed extensively in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, as well as Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, beginning with her exhibit at the Chapelle de Pénitants Blancs in Vence, France. In the decade following this first solo exhibition in France, Leigh's work was shown in solo exhibitions in Europe thirteen more times, and her career in New York began with a series of solo exhibitions at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery. When Leigh's first solo exhibition with the Betty Cunningham Gallery opened on January 27, 2005, the concentration of her career shifted to America, where her solo exhibitions have been concentrated in recent years.
Collections
According to the Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York, which represents her, Leigh's work is held in the following public collections:- Accademia dei Georgofili, Uffizi Galleries, Florence, ItalyUffiziThe Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
- Citibank, New York, NYCitibankCitibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
- Collezioni Communali, Bari, Italy
- Collezioni Communali, Sabbioneta, Italy
- Deloitte & Touche LLP, New York, NY
- The Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, MEFarnsworth Art MuseumThe Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, United States, is an art museum that specializes in American art. Its permanent collection includes works by such artists as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, Fitz Henry Lane, Frank Benson, Childe Hassam, and Maurice...
- Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MAFogg Art MuseumThe Fogg Museum, opened to the public in 1896, is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums....
- Guggenheim Museum, New York, NYSolomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
- Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CAHammer MuseumThe Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
- Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA
- Industrial Solvents Corporation, Rye, NY
- The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, IsraelIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NYMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
- Midtsønderjyllands Museum, Gram Slot, Gram, Denmark
- Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJMontclair Art MuseumThe Montclair Art Museum is located in Montclair, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States.-Collection:The Montclair Art Museum is one of the few museums in the United States devoted to American art and Native American art forms. The collection consists of more than 12,000 works...
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Issoudun, France
- Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
- Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, OH
- The New York Public Library, New York, NYNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
- Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, CTSterling Memorial LibrarySterling Memorial Library is the largest library at Yale University, containing over 4 million volumes. It is an example of Gothic revival architecture, designed by James Gamble Rogers, adorned with thousands of panes of stained glass created by G. Owen Bonawit.The Library has 15 levels, each with...
- The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
- Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CTYale University Art GalleryThe Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
Critical response
Leigh has also consistently received critical acclaim both in essays and in reviews in such publications as ArtnewsARTnews
ARTnews is an arts magazine based in New York, founded by James Clarence Hyde in 1902 as Hyde’s Weekly Art News. It is published 11 times a year.ARTnews covers all art, from ancient to Post-modernism...
, Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, and The Brooklyn Rail
The Brooklyn Rail
The Brooklyn Rail is a political, artistic and literary magazine based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Coverage includes political andliterary essays, art criticism, interviews, original fiction and poetry, and reviews....
. Among the critical responses to her work are the following quotations:
″Abby Leigh's recent paintings and ink drawings (2005–07), brought together under the title "The Eye is the First Circle," cast Yayoi Kusama's obsessive infinity nets over the visionary abstraction of Arthur Dove….”Landscape for the Profoundly Myopic” …might well herald myopia as a condition to be cultivated by 21st-century artist-visionaries."
--Art in America
"What is perhaps most remarkable about the drawings in My Personal Atlas is the balance between the lyrically private and the analytic. The unfolding biomorphic flow of these drawings inevitably evokes the introspective surrealism of an artist like Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...
…"
--The Brooklyn Rail
"The results resemble…pregnant Robert Ryman canvases that delicately balance the scientific and the artistic”
--Artnews
"…the deep sensibility that informs not only Leigh’s sense of her own practice but also the art that she creates: the radical intertwining of knowledge and feeling, the exquisite and sometimes surprising bodily sensations that as the mind proceeds to go deeper in."
--Kathryn A. Tuma
"Her inquiry between the micro- and macrocosmic results in two bodies of organic abstractions that coax the viewer into matrical contemplation."
--The Kurtenscharfer Papers
"…micro/macro…Specific and random, tough-minded and dreamy…paradoxes rendered credible through their studied neutrality."
--Tom Micchelli
"Like a court clerk, she documents, like a coroner, she cuts open, like a reporter, she examines everything[...]sensuous"
--Louis Cane
"One recalls the anthropometry of Yves Klein
Yves Klein
Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...
, those impressions of nude models …God alone know what St. Francis of Assisi might have thought, faced with this type of decidedly orgasmic fioretti…"
--Pierre Restany
Pierre Restany
Pierre Restany , was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher.Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning to France in 1949 he attended the Lycée Henri-IV before studying at universities in France,...