About Fifty Forests
The Fifty Forests project documents the self-organizing patterns in trees in each of America’s fifty states. Since 2010, my paintings have taken this extraordinary biological phenomenon as their primary subject, depicting the natural history of the landscapes from which they emerge.
By transcribing the unspoken language of the structural integrity and biological resilience of trees, my work explores the intersection of painting and the natural world as well as themes of representation and abstraction. Fifty Forests is an extension of this ongoing project and is inspired by the history of North America, ethnobiology, natural and cultural histories, environmentalism and ecology. It is a research-based project that involves site visits, interviews in the field and archival research, all of which results in suites of paintings that depict the remarkable details in the inner and outer surfaces of trees.
The project is designed as a framework for reflecting upon the ancient history of the interspecies relationship between humans and trees, as well as a way to question what is at stake in this country’s ongoing struggle to reconcile our connection to nature with the use - and often exploitation - of our natural resources. Fifty Forests will take me to various forested and deforested sites on both protected and unprotected lands in each of America’s fifty states.
The project pioneers the use of reclaimed earth pigments, produced from minerals like iron oxide pulled from US riverways, historically polluted by mining. Made both on site and in my studio, the paintings that emerge from this series are intended to portray the incredible diversity this country holds and are meant as a contribution to the urgent conversation around our changing climate.
About the Artist
Kristin Leachman’s paintings are noted for repositioning abstraction, figuration and geometry, making seamless connections between the subliminal and sublime.
Her current project, Fifty Forests, explores both pattern and symbolism in the growth formations of trees throughout North America’s fifty states. Born in Washington, D.C., Leachman spent her early years in Virginia and now lives in Los Angeles, California. She earned a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Production Design from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Leachman designed Senzeni Na? (What Have We Done?), Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Film. Her paintings have been presented in one-person exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Kristin Leachman: Xylem Rays, at Laguna Art Museum, and Kristin Leachman: Longleaf Lines at The Georgia Museum of Art. Her work is in the collections at the National Gallery of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, U.S. Department of State, Laguna Art Museum, Georgia Museum of Art and an oral history interview with Leachman is included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.*
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CV
Kristin Leachman
BORN
Washington, D.C., USA
EDUCATION
1991 - M.F.A, Production Design, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, CA. The Franklin Schaffner Fellowship
1988 - B.F.A., Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI.
AWARDS / HONORS / RESIDENCIES
2022 - University of Georgia - Signature Lecture Series: Kristin Leachman, contemporary artist, (speakers noted nationally for their broad multidisciplinary appeal and compelling bodies of work.) Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA.
2016-2017 - Artist residency, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, CA.
2002 - Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Program. Interview (105 min.)
1991 - The Franklin Schaffner Fellowship, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
1990 - Senzeni Na?, Academy Award Nominee 1990 Best Short Subject, Production Designer.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022-2023 - Kristin Leachman: Longleaf Lines, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA. Curated by Jeffrey Richmond-Moll.
2016-2017 – Kristin Leachman: Xylem Rays, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA. Curated by Malcolm Warner.
2009 – New Paintings, Mendenhall Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
2006 – House Spirits, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., (From the Committees, Southern California Council for the National Museum of Women in the Arts)
2005 – House Spirits, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA.
2002 – New Paintings, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA.
2000 – Standard Painting, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA.
1999 – Durable, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA.
1997 – Comfort, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA. 1995 – Newspace, Los Angeles, CA.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 - Zero Horizon-Art of The Forest Floor, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Curated by Carole Ann Klonarides.
2021 - Garden, Ladies' Room, Los Angeles, CA.
2016 – Woven, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Descanso Gardens, La Canada, CA. Curated by John O’Brien.
2009 – Joni and Monte Gordon Art Collection, Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA.
2007 – Luck of the Draw, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Arts, Santa Monica, CA.
2006 – Good to Go, Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Curated by Joni Gordon.
2004 – Scraping the Planar Nubium, Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA.
2003 – LAPD: Pattern & Decoration in Los Angeles, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, Curated by Michael Duncan.
2003 - New Works, Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
1999 - Grid Locked, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA., Curated by Gary Szymanski.
1997 - Passages, Matter & Mind, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA.
1996 – 3 L.A. Artists, Antelope Valley College, Lancaster, CA., Curated by Cynthia Minet.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Art - Washington, D.C.
Georgia Museum of Art - Athens, GA.
The San Diego Museum of Art - San Diego, CA.
U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy - Kabul, Afghanistan
Laguna Art Museum - Laguna Beach, CA.
Washington University Women's Studies Department - St. Louis, MO.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 - Last Look - Fifty Forests, American Forests Magazine, Winter/ Spring issue
2022 - Kristin Leachman - Longleaf Lines, Longleaf Alliance / The Longleaf Leader. Summer issue.
2016 - Antoine Boessenkool, Art & Nature, Orange County Register, CA.
2016 - Lisa Black, Art bursts out and Nature rushes in, OC Weekly, CA.
2006 – Caroline Weaver, Kristin Leachman’s House Spirits, Women in the Arts, Volume XXIV
2005 – Christopher Knight, Weaving body and mind together, Los Angeles Times, CA. April 15
2005 - Artscene, Los Angeles, CA.
2004 – Michelle Cairella, Scaping the Planar Nubium: Newspace Artists at Fullerton College, Exhibition Brochure
2002 – Peter Frank, Art Pick of the Week, LA Weekly, CA. December
2002 - Paul Karlstrom, Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Program, Interview (105 min.)
2001 – Michael Duncan, Kristin Leachman at Newspace, Art in America, July (reproduction)
2000 – David Pagel, A Few New Curves, Los Angeles Times, December 22
1999 – Berin Gonolu, Around the House: Women Artists Challenge Domestic Traditions, Artweek, September, [reproduction]
1999 - Leah Ollman, Humble Rug Made Lofty by Leachman, Los Angeles Times, CA. April 16
1997 – Susan Kandel, Beauty in ‘Comfort’, Los Angeles Times, CA. October 3