Shaun Leonardo: From Seeing To Witnessing

Thursday, February 11, 2021

5:30pm PST

 

performance still of figures wearing white clothing and joining hands. The two figures in the foreground rest their hands on each other shoulders

Image caption: Primitive Games - performance, 1 hr. at Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 6/21/18.  Photo by Paula Court

 

Visiting artist will discuss his multi-disciplinary work, which interrogates societal expectations of masculinity, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities. Speaking to his most recent body of work in The Breath of Empty Space, he will describe the physical and psychosocial negative space that is activated when viewers fill in the blanks, reframe details, and remix narratives based on both personal experience and perceptions ingrained by media and cultural biases. The artist will also describe his investment in performance as a process of embodiment—exploring the ways in which memory and trauma are lodged within our bodies.

                       Shaun Leonardo. Mirror/Echo/Tilt - production still. Photo by Melanie Crean

Shaun Leonardo. Mirror/Echo/Tilt - production still. Photo by Melanie Crean

Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA  from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital,  Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass, and was recently  profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim  Museum, the High Line, and New Museum, with a solo exhibition, The Breath of Empty  Space, currently at MASS MoCA, then traveling to The Bronx Museum in 2021. 

 

This event is open to the public free of charge.

 

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PLATFORM is presented by ConSortiUm, a collaborative project by the California State University Art Galleries and Museums.