Biography
Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, most often definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment.
Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, New Museum and Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, and profiled in the New York Times and CNN.
He has just rejoined Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens as Co-Director.
Values
Justice
The work must consider and measure inclusivity and equity.
Connectivity
The work must bring people through conflict and tension.
Persistence
The work must engender tenacity and grit.
Education
The work must create awareness and self-revelation.
Family
The work must allow for time with loved ones to be prioritized.
M.F.A., Painting, San Francisco Art Institute
2005
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Residency & Grant
2004
B.A., Visual Arts, Painting, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
2001
Center for Justice Innovation, Benefit Honoree, New York, NY
2022
Art 21: New York Close Up, New York, NY
2021
NYC Arts in Education Roundtable keynote, New York, NY
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Board of Governors, New York, NY
Socrates Sculpture Park, Board Member, Long Island City, NY
Bowdoin College of Art, Advisory Council Member, Brunswick, ME
2019
No Longer Empty, Benefit honoree, New York, NY
2018
Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Conference keynote, Brooklyn, NY
2017
Yerba Buena Center, YBCA100 honoree, San Francisco, CA
2015
Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant
National Endowment for the Arts award for MassMoCA exhibition
2021
A Blade of Grass Fellowship, New York, NY
2019
Art for Justice Fund, New York, NY
Guggenheim Social Practice Initiative, New York, NY
2018
Smack Mellon, Artist Studio Program, Brooklyn, NY
2017
Creative Capital, collaboration with Melanie Crean and Sable E. Smith
2016
Franklin Furnace Fund for performance art
Franklin Furnace Fund, with Melanie Crean and Sable E. Smith
2015
Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant
2011
Franklin Furnace Fund for performance art
McColl Center for Visual Art Residency and Fellowship
2010
The Return of El Conquistador, Queens Museum, NY
2024
#23, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, NY
2024
The Messengers, The Art Show (ADAA Fair), w/ Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, NY
2023
Between Four Freedoms, FDR Four Freedoms State Park, Roosevelt Island, NY
The Breath of Empty Space, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
2021
The Breath of Empty Space, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
The Breath of Empty Space, Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD
2020
Mirror/Echo/Tilt, with Melanie Crean & Sable E. Smith, New Museum, New York, NY
Testimony, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
2019
Primitive Games, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
2018
The Eulogy, Out of Line series, the High Line, New York, NY
Assembly, Recess, Brooklyn, NY
2017
The Eulogy, Out of Line series, the High Line, New York, NY
Assembly, Recess, Brooklyn, NY
2016
Untitled (A Performance Project), Madragoras Art Space, Long Island City, NY
Champion of the World, Praxis International Art, New York, NY
2013
Get in the Game, SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA
2024
Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing, Norton Museum of Art, W Palm Beach, FL
2024
The sun still rises in spite of everything, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
2024
Men of Change, Smithsonian Institution (SITES), traveling exhibition (2019-2024)
2024
Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (-2024)
Men of Change, Smithsonian Institution (SITES), traveling exhibition (2019-2023)
2023
All Opposing Players, curated by the Racial Imaginary Institute, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Articulating Activism, The 8th Floor, New York, NY
Melanie Crean & Shaun Leonardo, Pratt MWP Gallery, Utica, NY
2022
Vida, Muerte, Justicia, Ogden Contemporary Arts, Ogden UT
Structure Identity Transformation, david lusk gallery, Memphis / Nashville, TN
Breath Taking, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts 2020-2021 Artists-in-Residence Spotlight, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
2021
Culture and the People: El Museo del Barrio: 1969-2019, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Distance, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Messengers: Artists as Witnesses, University of New Hampshire Museum of Art, Durham, NH
2019
A Truthful Mirror, Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ
A VOID, curated by Paul Ramírez Jonas, 601Artspace, New York, NY
Walls Turned Sideways, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX
Second Sight: The Paradox of Vision in Contemporary Art, Bowdoin Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Portland Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
2018
Hold These Truths, No Longer Empty, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY
Scrimmage: American Artists Image Football from the Civil War to the Present, The Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH; The Figge Museum of Art, Davenport, IA
2017
A Dark Matter..., Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
2016
Radical Presence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Between History and the Body, 8th Floor Gallery, New York, NY
Venturing Out of the Heart of Darkness, Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC
RESPOND, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2015
Crossing Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2014