Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2024
Ana Ion Leonte is a Romanian-American artist who lives and works in New York and Florida. She is known for her vibrant and abstract expressionist paintings and ceramics that explore philosophical themes and sociological concepts. Originally from Bucharest Romania, Ana found her passion in the Ceramic Arts at the Episcopal School of Jacksonvilleand furthered her formal training in art at Alfred University College of Ceramics, NY and the Paris College of Art where she earned aBFA degree in Art and Design as well as Business Administration. She exhibited her work in New York at the Turner Gallery, the Ritz Museum and Theatre, Jacksonville, Florida, and at the Form Art Gallery in Bucharest, Romania. She was also involved in organizing and curating shows in New York and Bucharest, Romania. The young artist has assisted renown artists in Romania, while building and creating public art installations when not working on her own work.
Ana’s artistic practice is rooted in an ironic mixture of conceptual and abstract expressionism work where she often draws her inspiration from personal experiences with nature, cultures and anthropological matters. Her paintings and sculptures are characterized by compositions of shapes and colors that develop from occurrences which usually infiltrate her thoughts and ideals with questions and curiosities about conformity. Her ideas challenge the viewers to explore the nature of perception, limit sof language and boundaries of artistic expression.