American, b. 1953
Leslie Wayne is a painter and an occasional writer and curator. Her signature works are known for their highly dimensional surfaces of oil paint, forcing a re-examination of the term painting in the traditional sense. They often take the literal form of draped cloth, or like ready-mades, stand-in for the objects they represent.
Wayne was born in Germany in 1953 and grew up in Southern California. She studied painting and printmaking at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. She left school in her third year and moved to Paris to study French and to immerse herself in the art and museums of Europe. She then moved to Israel where she lived and worked from 1975-1980. After she returned to California, Wayne moved to New York and transferred to Parsons School of Design where she received her BFA in Sculpture with Honors in 1984.
Wayne’s role as artist-curator began after she graduated from Parsons and opened a commercial gallery for two years called 50 West in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Since that time, she has continued to curate shows for other venues in New York and for several university galleries in the U.S. Her exhibition reviews and interviews with fellow artists have been published in Artcritical, Two Coats of Paint, NAD NOW Journal, and BOMB.
She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in Painting, a New York State Council on the Arts Projects Residency Grant, a Yaddo Artists Fellowship, a Buhl Foundation Award for abstract photography, a Change Inc./Rauschenberg Foundation artist’s grant, and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant.
Her exhibitions have been reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Artnews, Art in America, Artforum, Hyperallergic, BOMB, Two Coats of Paint, and Artcritical, among others. Wayne is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery and lives and works in New York City with her husband, sculptor Don Porcaro.
Wayne was born in Germany in 1953 and grew up in Southern California. She studied painting and printmaking at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. She left school in her third year and moved to Paris to study French and to immerse herself in the art and museums of Europe. She then moved to Israel where she lived and worked from 1975-1980. After she returned to California, Wayne moved to New York and transferred to Parsons School of Design where she received her BFA in Sculpture with Honors in 1984.
Wayne’s role as artist-curator began after she graduated from Parsons and opened a commercial gallery for two years called 50 West in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Since that time, she has continued to curate shows for other venues in New York and for several university galleries in the U.S. Her exhibition reviews and interviews with fellow artists have been published in Artcritical, Two Coats of Paint, NAD NOW Journal, and BOMB.
She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in Painting, a New York State Council on the Arts Projects Residency Grant, a Yaddo Artists Fellowship, a Buhl Foundation Award for abstract photography, a Change Inc./Rauschenberg Foundation artist’s grant, and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant.
Her exhibitions have been reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Artnews, Art in America, Artforum, Hyperallergic, BOMB, Two Coats of Paint, and Artcritical, among others. Wayne is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery and lives and works in New York City with her husband, sculptor Don Porcaro.
