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“We are like salmon swimming upstream all the time.”
his is what Leonor Anthony tells me as she reflects on her career as a Cuban-born female scholar, artist and activist, sitting in her Miami studio wearing her customary all-black work clothes, cascading red hair and blue glasses. (Other locations include The Hague and
Brooklyn, NY.) Behind me are large canvases: one in which Mona Lisa looks down at me surrounded by traditional European art; another with Audrey Hepburn, inside the words “risk,” “reward,” and “absolute power.” Both canvases have Anthony’s recognizable touch of an American flag spread over, transforming these two icons into the pieces named Death of Culture and Risk and Reward, respectively.
thony that invitation came in November 2016 when the European Cultural Center contacted her to participate in their Open Borders Exhibit with her project Color, A World View. “It doesn’t get any higher than the Biennale,” Anthony tells me, smiling as she gestures toward the ceiling. So why then does she compare herself to a fish pushing against a stream? The answer lies in the reality. About 85% of women portrayed in the art housed in museums are nude. Yet, only 2% of work in museums are created by women. “People are shocked in Art Basel,” Leonor tells me, “when they realize the work they are looking at is made by a woman.” Artists are 50% men and 50% women, but men are favored for showing bold opinions in their work. “Women do the same thing, but don’t get recognized for it,” she explains. Yet, within the next 15 minutes she’s back to her sculptures and paint, asking me to film her as she tests the dripping of paint on a sculpture she is working on for Art Basel Miami. This attitude is what makes her art stand out and communicate to so many. Her work is a vessel for promoting human rights; her courageous use of materials and objects attached to her canvases address societal issues and tell a powerful story, which include prison reform, immigration, color prejudice, equality, women’s empowerment and the environment.
Anthony has been the Artist-in-Residence for Florida International University’s Honors College since 2013, where she founded and curated the Honors College Art Collection. She created the NestGen Project, an ecological biennale in which she includes artists from all over the world to create installations to call collective attention to the harm we cause to our planet when we don’t Anthony’s art is no doubt telling. She creates more than reuse, reduce and recycle. Her work has been featured in the Museé du Louvre, Contemporaries just imagery, channeling a message underneath the fabric at the Ufizzi, Seoul Open Art Fair, Museo Bramante, Museo Contemporáneo de Valencia, and of each work. This combination of aesthetics and political many more. It doesn’t stop there. commentary is what is now known as artivism. This passion Anthony will exhibit and curate the project titled, State of Being to be presented in CONTEXT has all the ingredients of activism, but is charged with the Art Miami during Miami Art Basel Week this December 2017. State of Being exposes the symwild creations of art. Artivism – where edges are pushed, biotic, interconnected relationship between the city, its inhabitants, and their shared history, from imagination is freed, and a new language emerges altogether. the philosophical to the political. Artivism promotes the essential understanding that humans can, through courageous creative expression, experience the he has no signs nor intention of stopping her artivism any time soon. Women face unifying power of love when courage harnesses itself to the many challenges in the world of fine arts. Nevertheless, she persists. task of art + social responsibility. Leonor Anthony is represented by the Simons Art Gallery. Leonor’s Website: http://leonoranthony.com However, Anthony’s art has caught far greater eyes than her Instagram: @leonoranthonyartist intern’s. In fact, her work was featured in the 57th Venice Simons Art Gallery: http://thesimonsgallery.com Biennale, the most prestigious art event in the world and Instagram: @thesimonsgallery the highest honor an artist can hope to achieve. The Venice Anthony’s work can be found on page 382 in the European Cultural Centers Venice catalogue Biennale began in 1895 and became the first international http://www.europeanculturalcentre.eu/var/file_ART_CATALOGUE_GAAF_Web_1.pdf art exhibit in history. Since then, it has featured the most Note on the Author: monumental works from iconoclastic artists that have Jacqueline is a sophomore at Florida International University who is majoring in English. She is changed the art world, such as Klimt and Renoir. Artists enrolled in multiple programs including Model UN, UN Women and will be a part of the curamust be invited to participate in the Biennale and for Antion team for the Aesthetics & Values 2018 exhibit on FIU.
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