All things art. Leanna Valente (b. New York City) is a self-taught contemporary artist of mixed media painting, photography, an avid art blogger, publisher and curator of contemporary, street art and graffiti art.
Referencing her most recent artwork: Leanna’s 2017 fashion based, mixed media / painting series “Deconstruction of Fashion” originated in 2008 with her “Changing The Art of Fashion“ sold out collections in 2008 and 2012. The recent reborn and altered series incorporate fashion magazine covers, editorials and ads, acrylic paint, oils, inks, spray paint, lots of fabric, found objects and sticker embellishments. Her pieces are then framed in shadow boxes due to depth; paper sculpting of the work and overall height and to allow the fabric to flow. “I feel fashion magazines from cover to cover are an inspiring yet very deceptive, an open pallet where I see endless opportunities to change the style and perception of beauty, and fashion through art.”
Leanna has been actively painting since a very young age and later featured in gallery shows and corporate collections since early 2000’s in New York City and Atlanta, GA. An avid photographer as well, she has a variety of ongoing photo projects documenting the NYC and Miami art scene. She has been featured in Teen Vogue with Sephora and Kat Von D (2016) and Harpers Bazaar (2016.) Leanna has also been actively documenting street art and graffiti for 12+ years and often works with friend and legendary photographer Martha Cooper shooting today and yesterdays most top, prolific street artists from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Wynwood, Miami. These images don’t often sit as mere photos for long, but are also embellished with a variety of paint, papers, sprays and frequent collaborations with the artists she photographs.
This directly continues onto another project and book in the works for four years titled “Instant Art Exposure,” capturing mural street and graffiti artists in progress on Polaroid film, building a singed story timeline. To date the project boasts over 1,400 photos of most all have the world’s street art and graffiti legends.
She has curated and published two books entitled Style Black Book 1 & 2 where street and graffiti artists adorn magic on the covers of fusion magazines, again changing the art of fashion. An upcoming photography book entitled “You Are Everything; The World Remembering David Bowie” is based on the hundreds of mementos left by worldwide travelers honoring his legacy at his Soho NYC door step apartment at the time of tis death in January 2016. As mementos kept coming, photography was daily/weekly lasting 6+ months.
Her love of art began on the streets began while growing up in Buffalo, NY and New York City. Leanna’s education includes a B.A. from SUNY Buffalo in Public Communications and a study minor in Design from F.I.T. (NYC), Atlanta College of Art/SCAD (Atlanta, GA) and from independent artist fellowships in New York City, Toronto and Miami. Her top featured private and corporate collections inc: Bloomberg, Starbucks, Tischman Speyer, the Swiss Hotel Group, AT&T Corporate, Georgia Pacific, Bo Concepts NYC & Brooklyn. Her work and art writing has also been featured in Teen Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Gothamist, New York Times, Time Out Magazine NYC, VNA (U.K.) and many additional publications and art blogs throughout the country.