Courtney M. Leonard

“How can water and light be made of earth and fire?,” writer and curator Heid E. Erdrich asked herself when she first encountered Courtney M. Leonard’s work. In the ongoing series, BREACH: LOGBOOK, Leonard presents ceramic forms surrounded by vibrant color fields that recall the experience of being near a body of water. Erdrich notes, “Leonard’s art is bound to a life and culture that came into being surrounded by water, the Shinnecock homelands, in what is now known as Long Island, NY. In her work I sense a story that arises from water worlds and the threats to them all—threats both to the water worlds and to the Shinnecock people alike. Her shapes speak of water creatures and the work humans have done at sea or on a river—fishing, whaling, gathering shells for tools and art, and more—work we forget forged an extraordinarily successful economy for millennia.” In a new installation for the Flaten Art Museum, Leonard thoughtfully engages her new home and the river environments of Northfield, Minnesota.

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