2 minute read
Sherry Leedy: Sight-Line, 2021
Sherry Leedy
September 3 - October 23, 2021
SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 816.221.2626 sherryleedy.com
Cover image, Double Take | Catalog design, Allison King | Photo credit, E.G. Schempf
Sherry Leedy’s, Sight-Line, is made up of drawings in soft pastel, many large-scale, all based on direct observation. Leedy’s continued interest in visual perception, slow looking and response, results in compositions of intensity, balance and beauty. Her subject matter is a cast of unlikely objects – lemons and perfume bottles, blue and green antique glass, mirrors and glass funnels, artist postcards and crystal balls – all activated by light. They appear together on stage, in familiar but unknown performances. Certain objects are cast, time and again, playing new roles in a new drawing, while others in the troupe wait off stage. There is a power in these artifacts of the recent past, in their human familiarity and strangeness, and in the way that Leedy draws them into existence, mark by mark of pastel, soft as butter.
The drawings, however, do not tell a well-known narrative even though they are composed of recognizable and named objects. Rather than individual still life objects having symbolic significance, it is the composition as a whole that holds the meaning. It is the adding up of visual elements that creates the story. The weight of objects, the transparency and reflectivity of light and color, the movement of line and shape, activate Leedy’s still-life compositions, bringing them to life, and taking the willing viewer on an unexpected journey.
Sherry Leedy’s work is found in the permanent collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO; the Los Angeles County Museum, CA: Emprise Bank, Wichita, KS; First National Bank, Columbia, MO; AT&T, KC, MO; Sprint Corporation, Leawood, KS among others.
Lasso, Soft pastel on paper, 46.5” x 34”
Picasso’s Butterflies, Soft pastel on paper, 46.5” x 31”
Balancing Act, Soft pastel on paper, 25.5” x 31.5”
July Lilies, Soft pastel on paper, 44.5” x 34”
Double Take, Soft pastel on paper, 34” x 43.75”
The Blue Meander, Soft pastel on paper, 45” x 34.25”
Rappaports, Soft pastel on paper, 33” x 42.5”
Center Stage, Soft pastel on paper, 33” x 41.5”
Razzle Dazzle, Soft pastel on paper, 34” x 43.75”
A Month of Sunday’s, Soft pastel on paper, 41” x 28.5”
Belladonna Blues, Soft pastel on paper, 34” x 23.5”
(Searching for) Safe Harbor, Soft pastel on paper, 26” x 34”
Oh, What a Day, Soft pastel on paper, 26” x 34”
Corral, Soft pastel on paper, 25.25” x 34”
The Far Away, Soft pastel on paper, 43.5” x 34”
Matriarch, Soft pastel on paper, 32” x 24”
The Offerings, Soft pastel on paper, 34.25” x 34”
American Beauty, Soft pastel on paper, 34” x 26”
Light and Color, Soft pastel on paper, 25.25” x 28”
SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
2004 Baltimore Ave. Kansas City, MO 64108 816.221.2626 | sherryleedy.com
