ABOUT
I am an American artist based in New York City, inspired by the urban landscape around me. For nearly a decade, I have been making paintings of construction sites in Manhattan, capturing the incremental yet rapid building process as the city constantly changes.
My fascination with this subject matter dates to 2015, when a 40 story building began to go up in front of my studio window on West 39th Street. I was losing a view I loved, but decided to give this unwelcome change my full attention and made scores of drawings and paintings as the new tower rose past my 13th floor workspace and blocked the view. I started calling it the Monolith. It had a slab-like quality, an immovability — and it began to represent other monolithic things in my life that couldn't be shifted.
Once the Monolith was finished, my new interest in construction took me outdoors, painting at a travel easel across Midtown. I documented the rise of numerous skyscrapers that have dramatically changed the cityscape, from Hudson Yards, to the multiple towers of Billionaire’s Row on West 57th Street, to One Vanderbilt next to Grand Central Station, and most recently 270 Park Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets.
During the Covid pandemic, my focus shifted to makeshift sidewalk dwellings juxtaposed with luxury buildings, as street homelessness soared in my neighborhood. In the years since, I have included other humble contrasts to the drama of the high-rises: small tenements under renovation or destined for demolition, weed-filled lots scheduled for development and my own neighborhood community garden on West 48th Street in Hell's Kitchen.
BIOGRAPHY
Gwyneth Leech's artwork has been exhibited across the United States and Great Britain in galleries including: Zürcher Gallery, Foley Gallery, AHA Gallery, Susan Teller Gallery and the Flatiron Prow Artspace, all in New York City; Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington MA and in museums including the Pearl Fincher Museum of Art in Houston, TX, the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ and the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum in Scotland. Leech has been featured in the New York Times, the Village Voice, international print media and on NY1 News. Leech is the subject of a multi-award winning short documentary, The Monolith, by New York filmmaker, Angelo Guglielmo. In November 2019, Leech’s construction paintings were featured on 1700 video kiosks across all five boroughs as part of Link NYC’s “Art on Link” public art project.
Leech holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and a BFA and Postgraduate Diploma from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Hell’s Kitchen Foundation Grant, several Scottish Arts Council awards, and a Thouron British/American Exchange Fellowship, Leech’s artwork resides in private and public collections. Corporate acquisitions and commissions include Brookfield, Cimolai, John Civetta & Sons, Cornerstone, Despé Italia, Metropolitan Walters, Nucor Steel, NYC Constructors, Sciame, SL Green Realty and Stonebridge. Leech’s artwork is in the permanent collection of the New York Historical Museum.