September 17 - October 2, 2020

A red evening sky, the body language of daily commuters, the glow of lights from a neighbor’s house – Anna Leonhardt synthesizes life’s endless stimuli in her abstract work. Malevich said that a painted surface is a real living form, here in sheer vitality Leonhardt activates her paintings with numerous layers of thick oil paint. Every inch of the luscious surface is carefully attended to, resulting in a two-fold enthrallment, that of color and materiality.
Most distinct are vertical and horizontal forms Leonhardt affectionately calls “Raumzeug” (“Space Stuff”). Rightfully so, they are the very life-force of her paintings. Always in exuberant impasto, these multi-layered marks may seem to float freely but they are in constant interaction, epitomizing Leonhardt’s innate grasp for rhythm and balance.
Preferring the palette knife, with each drag Leonhardt welcomes accidents and consequences, building up complex compositions intuitively as much as empirically. Colors are the star performers on her operatic stage, they bleed and blend right up to the edges of the canvas. Luminous and mystic, her paintings are lucid metaphors of the physical world.
Anna Leonhardt (b. 1981 Pforzheim, Germany) studied painting under Professor Ralf Kerbach in Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, a school renowned for its highly technical and formal academia. Leonhardt has shown in Dresden, Berlin and Leipzig and her work is in numerous private and public collections including Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kunstsammlung des Sächsischen Landtages, art collection of the Saxon Parliament and Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden.
Selected Works

Gardens
2020
Oil on Linen
31.5 x 25.6 in (80 x 65 cm)

Light House
2020
Oil on Linen
31.5 x 25.6 in (80 x 65 cm)

Form Four
2020
Oil on Linen
29.5 x 25.6 in (75 x 65 cm)

Time Machine
2019
Oil on linen
68 x 100 inches (172.7 x 254 cm)

Crossing Borders
2019
Oil on linen
74 x 63 inches (188 x 160 cm)

Blue Line
2019
Oil on linen
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127 cm)

Metal Squares
2019
Oil on Linen
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127 cm)

Sharpness of Blue
2019
Oil on Linen
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127 cm)

Little Place in the Shadow
2018
Oil on Linen
51 x 40 inches (129.5 x 101.6 cm)

Balancing Act
2018
Oil on Linen
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127 cm)

Twist
2018
Oil on Linen
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127 cm)

4C
2019
Oil on Linen
51 x 40 in (129.5 x 101.6 cm)

Hi
2018
Oil on Linen
51 x 40 inches (129.5 x 101.6cm)

Screens
2017
Oil on Canvas
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127cm)

Entrance
2017
Oil on Canvas
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127cm)

Back and Forth
2017
Oil on Canvas
65 x 50 inches (165 x 127cm)

Vibrations
2017
Oil on Canvas
41 x 35 inches (109 x 89 cm)

The Neighbor's House
2017
Oil on Canvas
70.9 x 57.1 inches (180 x 145 cm)

See It
2017
Oil on Canvas
39.4 x 31.5 inches (100 x 80 cm)

The Yellow House II
2016
Oil on Canvas
70.9 x 57 inches (180.1 x 144.8 cm)

Inner City Life I
2016
Oil on Canvas
54 x 42 inches (137 x 107 cm)

ELDRIDGE IV
2016
Oil on Canvas
76 x 126 inches (193 x 320)