Virginia Leonard: Selected works, 2018-2021

Virginia Leonard: Selected works, 2018-2021

This work is a self-portrait, a large-scale ceramic sculpture that is representation of my body. The form is coiled, precarious, threatening to fall over at any given moment, an intentional gesture that evokes the fragility of the body becoming undone. The glazes and resins resemble bodily excretions and the bulbous and shard like forms refer to the brokenness of my own body. This work is an ongoing dialogue I have with the realities of the voicelessness of chronic pain and bodily scarring and the daily need to define a visual language to process and translate life with chronic pain.

Virginia Leonard

“Leonard deploys her unique language of colour and form to translate specific autobiographical memories. The clay ground is treated as a canvas and glazes are applied in a painterly way. Resembling bodily excretions, Leonard’s surfaces bleed and leak as if from an open wound. Some appear parched and cracked like baked subcutaneous flesh, while others drip globules of yellow-green glaze resembling bile. Areas are embellished with seductive gold lustre glaze, while others glisten with resinous tendrils that cascade downwards, the colour of fresh meat. A series of bulbous protruding forms refer to osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone that manifests as fungi that grows out of the flesh. Kiln bricks, paper clay shards, nails and structured elements act as interventions that allude to braces or supports, post operative solutions that might be used to heal tendons or reset broken bones.

Leonard’s works register the limitations of language when it comes to expressing bodily experience, becoming a visual lexicon for the everyday realties of living with chronic pain. Tapping into an aspect of lived experience that is highly personal and nearly impossible to articulate, Leonard’s work has an extraordinary ability to speak to other people living with chronic pain, and she counts many surgeons and medical professionals as patrons of her work.” Anna Briers, Virginia Leonard – The Pain Body: Embodiment and Renewal

Full photo captions

• Blue Blood With Crowns, 2020. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 600x500x500mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Dressing Up For Ward Rounds, 2020. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 650x540mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Dressing Up For Ward Rounds, 2020. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 650x540mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Flattery Will Get You No Where, 2019. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 460x460mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Knee High Boots and Eye Lash Extensions, 2021. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 720x560x540mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Now I Walk With A Limp, 2021
• Osteopaths and Negronis, 2021. Courtesy of Taste Contemporary, Switzerland. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 480x470mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Breath Holder, 2020. Gow Langsford Gallery, Aotearoa, New Zealand
• Auckland Art Fair, 2018. Paul Nache Gallery. Aotearoa, New Zealand
• Auckland Art Fair, 2018. Paul Nache Gallery. Aotearoa, New Zealand
• Ripped Legs, 2020. Private Collection. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 790x300mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy. Award 4, Premier Winner, 2021. Pus and Scabs, 2021. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 460x450mm.
• Cripple, 2020. Courtesy of Taste Contemporary, Switzerland. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 1060x530x510mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Sometimes I Look Like A Freak, 2020. Courtesy of Gow Langsford Gallery. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 750x500x500mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Doctor Crushes From My Hospital Bed, 2021. Courtesy of Taste Contemporary, Geneva. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 610x500x500mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Courage And Spray On Tan, 2021. Courtesy of Mindy Solomon Gallery, USA. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 460x480mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• This Is My Story, 2018. Courtesy of Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, USA. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 670x290mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• This Is My Whole Self Not Just The Nice Bits, 2021. Courtesy of Mindy Solomon Gallery, USA. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 500x600x580mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Urns For Unwanted Limbs, 2021. Private Collection. Clay, Resin and Lustre. 300x280mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Trust Me He Said You Will Get Used To The Look, 2019. Courtsey of The Wallace Trust, New Zealand. Clay, Lustre, Resin, Nails and Concret. 560x290mm. Photo credit Oliver King
• Such Is The Situation, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 830x640mm. The Collection of The Gallery of South Australia. Photo credit Oliver King
• Wont You Please, Please, Please, Give Me Love, 2021. Courtesy of Taste Contemporary, Switzerland. Clay, Lustre and Resin. 940x490mm. Photo credit Oliver King