Juliana Cerqueira Leite (born 1981) is a Brazilian sculptor based in New York, known for creating large-scale works that explores the physical presence of the human body. She is considered to push the boundaries of sculpture.

Life and education

Leite (pronounced: ˈleɪt͡ʃˌɘ) was born and grew up in Brazil and studied sculpture in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educati ...

, graduating with an MFA in sculpture from the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London. She then undertook an MA in Drawing at

Camberwell College of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgra ...

Artwork

Leite's artwork often combines performance and sculpture. The sculptural materials she uses are wide-ranging and include:

hydrocal Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

, FGR-95,

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

glass fibre Glass fiber ( or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the inventio ...

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

, and

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

. To create her artworks, Leite often makes casts from

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

, using her own body and movement to develop forms. Leite has also produced site specific and video installation works. Leite has been inspired by ancient cultures and events, including excavations at Pompeii. Earlier work explored Amazonian funerary urns. ''Until Different,'' Leite's first solo exhibition in New York, was held at Arsenal Contemporary,

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...

in 2018.

Exhibitions

Notable exhibitions include: *''Vancouver Biennale,'' Vancouver, Canada (2014 Residency) *''Antarctica'', Antarctic Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale of Art, Venice, Italy, 2017 *''Until Different'', London, UK (2018) *''Sculpture in the City'' - London, UK (2018) *''Orogenesis'' - Naples, Italy (2019)

Awards

* The Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize, 2006 *

A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...

Fellowship, 2010-2011 *Furla Art Prize, 5th Moscow International Young Art Biennial, 2016 * Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, April 2019

References

External links