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Barlow examines what it means to be family and our racial identities. healing our collective understanding of belonging, and Her life-sized oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations of how race entangles the intimate sphere of love, family, and friendship. Her work is colorful, tender and nuanced, inspired by community dialogue and personal experience. Barlow believes art is both healing and liberatory: through the power of representation, witnessing and storytelling, in the words of bell hooks, art is “one of the rare locations where acts of transcendence can take place and have a wide-ranging transformative impact.”
Register today to reserve a spot in Leslie Barlow's lecture. All talks and workshops in the Power of Art series focus on art's ability to raise awareness, cultivate community, and promote social change. The series is made in part thanks to a grant from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation.
Life and Art Intertwined: Portraiture and Storytelling with Leslie Barlow
April 6, 2022
12PM-1PM
Virtual, 45 Minute Talk + 15 Minute Q&A
Free, open to all
ABOUT LESLIE BARLOW
Leslie Barlow is an artist living and working on occupied Očeti Šakówin and Wahpekute land now known as Minneapolis, MN. Barlow is interested in reimagining our relationship to our racial identities through healing our collective understanding of belonging and what it means to be family. Her life-size oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations into how race entangles the intimate sphere of love, family, and friendship. Her work is colorful, tender and nuanced, and inspired by community dialogue and personal experience. Barlow received her BFA in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin- Stout and her MFA in 2016 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
In 2021 Barlow was awarded the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and in 2019 she was awarded both the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship and the 20/20 Springboard Fellowship. Barlow actively exhibits her work throughout the United States and many of her pieces can be found in private and public collections, including the Minnesota Museum of American Art and the Weisman Art Museum. Her commissioned portraits can be found in spaces including Anoka-Ramsey Community College, the Hennepin County Medical Center, and the US Bank Stadium. Her studio is located in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
The collaborative work Barlow does with other artists and folks in the community is integral to her studio practice. Barlow teaches at the University of Minnesota and leads the Public Functionary Studio Program for emerging artists. She also occasionally teaches community classes/workshops and holds public lectures. In 2017 she joined a team of organizers and artists to plan the first-ever MidWest Mixed Conference, which has now grown into the organization MidWest Mixed with ongoing programming. In 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd, Barlow became a part of the collective Creatives After Curfew, creating public art with community in solidarity with the uprising, calls for police abolition, and #AllBlackLivesMatter.
Leslie Barlow is currently represented by Bockley Gallery. Read more about Leslie on her website.
