Artist Statement
As an interdisciplinary artist, my artwork explores a resistance to fixed definitions in form, medium, and identity. Using non-traditional approaches to collage—including object making, studio photography, painting, and digital media—I create abstract figurations that embody a sense of nomadism, reflecting my own upbringing. These figures exist in a state of flux, untethered to specific places, mediums, or identities, inviting viewers to question the solidity of what we perceive as reality.
By reconstructing the edges and barriers of objects and spaces, I am looking to finding pathways of connection and belonging. My work examines the intersections of body and space, photography and painting, and the inherited versus self-created identities. Each piece is an invitation to pause, reflect, and challenge conventional notions of creation.
Beyond my studio practice, I am active in creating visibility and forms of permanence for LGBTQ+ histories. Through public monument restoration and creation, I engage in archiving, writing, and memorializing queer narratives that might otherwise be forgotten. These efforts aim to honor the past while fostering spaces for connection and belonging in the present and hopeful future.
Bio
Ryan Leitner is an artist and writer who currently lives in New Orleans. His art is centralized around the visualization of queerness through the body, its objects, its history, and space. His two dimensional collages explore figurative objects and their environments through photography, painting, digital media, and sculpture. Outside of the studio, Leitner concentrates on queer visibility in public spaces through restoring Queer public monuments, and exploring how Queer history is historicized. He received his M.F.A. From The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, holds a B.F.A. From Regents American College of London, and was a participant at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in 2023. He has spoken at New Orleans Museum of Art, was a resident at Joan Mitchell Foundation and is currently a collective member at Antenna Gallery.