Sarah Leiva (b. 2001)
… is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Miami, FL. Her practice explores themes of labor, history, and love. Leiva explores these concepts through an intersection of garment, sculpture, and performance. In addition to pulling from historical contexts and found objects, Leiva references her own Jewish and Latino lineage. She has been included in exhibitions across the United States, including Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, and Providence.
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Artist Statement
My practice is driven by impulse, a way to understand the labor of the past so that I may learn how to work through the present. My process is sculpture-based and performance-informed, blending these mediums to form narratives of desire and discomfort. The melding of these two states of being are informed by my lived experience bordering cultural identities. Scale, malleability, and weight form points of contact and tension between objects, bodies, and histories. Recently, modularity has become a prevailing aspect within my work, applying the sensation of kinetic energy to these precariously resting art objects.
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
2020-2024 | BFA, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2024-Present | Aurora Lampworks, Brooklyn, NY — Fabricator & Metal Finisher
2023 | Truepenny Projects, Baltimore, MD — Costume Fabricator
2021 - 2023 | Jubilee Arts, Baltimore, MD — Arts Educator & Sewing Instructor
2021 - 2022 | Black Artist Research Space, Baltimore, MD — Intern Curator
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2024 | The Steel Yard Micro Resident, Providence, Rhode Island
Baltimore Jewelry Center Winter 2024 Scholarship, Baltimore, MD
2023 | MICA Interdisciplinary Sculpture Departmental Recognition Award, Baltimore, MD
2020 | YoungArts Honorable Mention in Design, Miami, FL
2019 | De La Cruz & Knight Foundation Scholarship, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Bhui Agua, The Wurks Gallery, Providence, RI The Third Place, Station Building, MICA Art Walk, Baltimore, MD
If Birds Could Fly, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
It Feels Right To Me, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2023
Polycrystalline, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2022
Open Bodies, Fox 2 Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Something Big, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
We Are Everywhere, Fox 2 Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Soft Spots & Hard Places, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2021
10th Annual “All Women” Exhibition, Light Space & Time, Online Art Gallery
2020
YoungArts Regional Exhibition, YoungArts Gallery, Miami, FL
2019
Between the Walls, The Bass Museum, Miami, FL
Parsons Summer Intensive Exhibition, The New School Parsons, New York, NY
2018
Just Another Day, Locust Projects (Locust Art Builders), Miami, FL
SAIC Early College Program Exhibition, Chicago, IL