Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Shaun Leonardo

Leonardo will discuss his multi-disciplinary work, which negotiates societal expectations of masculinity, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity and experience of failure. The artist will describe his investment in performance as a process of em-bodiment — exploring the ways in which memory and trauma are lodged within our bodies.

Utilizing a series of embodiment exercises, Leonardo will guide participants in a process of expressing experiences held in their bodies through non-verbal communication. In connection with the work of the school’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) task force, this workshop will center on narratives of difference and otherness. Normally held in person, the session will be translated into Zoom format. 

Brooklyn-based artist Shaun Leonardo received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass and has been profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line and New Museum, with a solo exhibition, The Breath of Empty Space, at MASS MoCA and The Bronx Museum in 2021. View his work at elcleonardo.com.