Artist Highlight: Rhea Leonard
Image by Pedro Wazzan, 2022.
Meet Rhea Leonard, multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Through her work, she explores the complex reality of Black life in America and her experiences in navigating Western culture. From traditional graphite drawings to experimental textile-based mark-making, or from small-scale printmaking to large-scale public art, her journey is one of continuous growth and experimentation.
As she reflects on her experiences at Bakehouse and share insights into an exciting public art project in the works, Rhea offers a brief look into what it means to push creative boundaries and carve out space in the art world. Read on to discover more about her process, inspirations, and what’s next…
Can you tell us about your artistic practice?
I am a multidisciplinary artist— I utilize drawing, printmaking, and sculpture within my art practice to explore the Black body, life in America as a Black person, as well as the emotional and/or psychological aspects of navigating Western culture as, not only a cis woman, but as a person of color. Recently, I have been looking into expanding my understanding of mark-making and my understanding of drawing as a medium. For a while, I did a lot of works on paper and paper-like surfaces using graphite. A very traditional approach to the medium. However, since the pandemic— when I started exploring textiles, weaving and beading— I’ve had lingering ideas of what a drawing could mean or do if sewn and stitched onto the surface upon which it is “drawn.” What new meanings come about when the mark making process requires piercing, knots, and gathers to create the image?
In printmaking, I am still in the planning phase of an edition using reclaimed off cuts of copper plates I have been gifted. After polishing and shaping them up, I was left with very skinny strips— stuff that wouldn’t normally be used for making image plates. But I wanted a challenge… and a challenge I received! I’ve been troubleshooting imagery that would complement the strip format and I’m excited to work on it little by little between my various projects.
Tell us about a personal artistic project or body of work that you are currently excited about.
I am very excited about the public art project I have been working on for roughly two years now. 2025 looks to be the year where a lot of progress will be made— it’s been a journey. I have learned so much during the process about myself as an artist and what I can truly do if given the opportunity and backing to see a vision to its true realization. It’s incredible. Since working on my own project, I’ve been really into hunting down and going to see a lot of the public artworks around Miami. Many works I’ve passed for years as an art student and had no idea they were part of the public artworks program. It’s been a humbling and empowering experience, wondering what the progress was like for these existing works to come into being, and knowing my project will soon join the archive of works along with them.
Tell us about how you have developed as an artist since you began working at Bakehouse.
My development as an artist since joining the Bakehouse has been a process in learning to continue to bet on myself, and the work I make. Early on as an art student, I often struggled with wondering if my work was good enough or impactful enough for the larger conversations being had in contemporary art. I’ve learned from colleagues at the Bakehouse that the work we make fulfills a place in the art world and that competition amongst artists is not always inherent. That having more art in the discussion rather than less is usually for the better. So make more work!
I’ve also seen firsthand there are so many ways to be an artist. There is no one way. Doing it one way is not necessarily a guarantee that it will see you very far. So not feeling like a real artist didn’t apply for long after coming to the Bakehouse because I watched fellow artists re-brand, change gears in their careers and within their practice, and still reach great success. They didn't always follow the same rudimentary schedules or methods of making their work that were taught in art school. They allowed influences and experiences to change the work they made and, thus, the type of artist they were in real time. This really shifted how I approached my practice and process of experimentation early on. I guess what I’m getting at is that it’s hard to feel like an imposter in a community of very talented and gifted artists that were often redefining what an artist was each and every day.