Leslie Roberts

I translate ephemeral language into rule-based abstraction, in works that are diagrams of their own making. Each painting contains a list of contemporary vernacular, collected from signage, email, instruction manuals, product labels, ads, and other everyday sources. On slate-like gessoed panels, I chart columns of writing into grids of pigment and line. The ordered process of mapping language allows unexpected color relationships, in configurations that are pattern-like but irregular. The lists and annotations are finally inseparable from the painted structures they create. Each panel is a record of observing, thinking, and making.

LeslieRoberts_NOWLATER_2021_mixedmediaonpanel_14x11inches

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Leslie Roberts had recent solo shows at 57W57Arts in NYC (2021) and at Minus Space in Brooklyn (2019). She has also exhibited at venues including the Brooklyn Museum, McKenzie Fine Art, Pierogi Gallery, PPOW, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, the Visual Arts Center of NJ, the Weatherspoon Museum (Greensboro, NC), and the Wellin Museum (Clinton, NY.) She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Ragdale, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Marble House Project. Roberts has an MFA from Queens College and a BA from Yale, and attended Skowhegan and the New York Studio School. She is represented by Minus Space, and is a professor at Pratt Institute. She lives and works in Brooklyn.