Leigh Ledare

Seattle–born artist Leigh Ledare’s methodology is both conceptual and highly performative, utilizing photography, text, film and media to construct visual narratives that address language, relationships, eroticism and social convention. Navigating the complexities in the relationship between artist and subject, Ledare rejects the notion of objective criticism. One project, Double Bind (2010/2012) addresses the socio-psychological connections formed between personal and artistic identities. Flushing out the nuance of an already existing love triangle, formed between Ledare, his former wife Meghan Ledare-Fedderly and her current husband Adam Fedderly, the artist exposed patterns of self-objectification and nonverbal understanding. Traveling to a remote cabin in upstate New York, Ledare photographed his former wife using a specific series of parameters—the experiment was then repeated between Ledare-Fedderly and her husband. In over a thousand resulting images, the articulation of the missing figure is clear. In this and other perfomative projects, Ledare creates and enacts based on a series of rules, at times self-defined and others the result of legal parameters set forth by a third party. Using various systems of communication to visualize his diverse and elaborate projects, Ledare produces work that is perplexing and psychologically gripping.  

Ledare’s work has been widely exhibited internationally, the subject of solo surveys at Kunsthal  Charlottenborg, WIELS, Brussels and solo exhibitions at The Box, Los Angeles,Pilar Corrias, London, The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Les Rencontres de Arles, Arles, and Rivington Arms Gallery, New York. His work has appeared in group shows at Metro Picture Gallery, New York, Shirn  Kunsthalle Frankfurt, PS1/MoMA, New York, Swiss Institute New York, and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin.