James Leonard

Seeking Diviners

$25.00

2015
softcover, 82 pgs. illustrated throughout, with printed inserts and stickers
8 in. by 5 in.
Edition: open

Seeking Diviners continues James Leonard’s exploration of the metaphysical in the Anthropocene epoch. The book examines our impermanence and our relationship to the future through a street level campaign to seek out those who believe they have insight into future events. Includes photographs by Nina Mouritzen, Molly Gallentine, Michael Duva, and James Leonard. 82 pages with color photos throughout, plus printed inserts and stickers. Signed copies available.

Seeking Diviners

James Leonard engages in the ephemera and anxiety of being at a time of human induced crises. Via his work, Leonard grapples his own emotional and psychological responses to compound environmental and socio-economic emergencies. Influences on his work include formalisms such as the fractal nature of mortality, the phenomenological experience of space/time, and the neurological emergence of meaning. His studio practice is guided by archaic, yet relevant, conceptions of artistic mysticism, drawing from traditions of gnosis, the sublime, and genius. Meanwhile, his exhibition practice is inspired by the more urgent practices of activism and civic debate. Leonard received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1996 and his Master of Fine Arts with a focus on Complex Systems Theory from the University of Michigan in 2004. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, producing a variety of sculptures, drawings, manufactured multiples, and numerous performative conceptual works.