Leslie Hewitt
Encyclopedia
Leslie Hewitt is a contemporary visual artist. She currently lives and works in New York City and Houston, Texas.
Hewitt explores political, social, and personal narratives through photography, sculpture, and site-specific installations. She references notions of non-linear perspective and double consciousness
through arrangements of objects from popular culture and personal ephemera.
During her 2009-2010 Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Hewitt examined the origins of the camera obscura
and used the camera as a tool to explore cultural memory through the construction of temporary still lifes. By repeatedly composing and photographing her arrangements she captures changes in daylight, graivity, and perception.
She received a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union's School of Art in 2000 and later received an M.F.A. from Yale University in 2004. She studied Africana Studies and Cultural Studies at New York University from 2001 to 2003. Hewitt has held residencies at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She participated in the 2008 Whitney Biennial
and received a 2008 Art Matters research grant to the Netherlands.
She is the recipient of the Guna S. Mundheim Berlin Prize in the Visual Arts and Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin for Spring 2012.
Hewitt explores political, social, and personal narratives through photography, sculpture, and site-specific installations. She references notions of non-linear perspective and double consciousness
Double consciousness
Double consciousness, in its contemporary sense, is a term coined by W. E. B. Du Bois. The term is used to describe an individual whose identity is divided into several facets...
through arrangements of objects from popular culture and personal ephemera.
During her 2009-2010 Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Hewitt examined the origins of the camera obscura
Camera obscura
The camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side...
and used the camera as a tool to explore cultural memory through the construction of temporary still lifes. By repeatedly composing and photographing her arrangements she captures changes in daylight, graivity, and perception.
She received a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union's School of Art in 2000 and later received an M.F.A. from Yale University in 2004. She studied Africana Studies and Cultural Studies at New York University from 2001 to 2003. Hewitt has held residencies at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She participated in the 2008 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
and received a 2008 Art Matters research grant to the Netherlands.
She is the recipient of the Guna S. Mundheim Berlin Prize in the Visual Arts and Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin for Spring 2012.