MELISSA LEANDRO explores her Costa Rican/Latin American roots, her family memories, and her relationship to nature to create topographical fiber works filled with her drawn and collected imagery. Her paintings are vibrant, animated, and heavily layered through traditional and non-traditional processes of stitching, quilting, weaving, and dyed fabric. Melissa leads us through an alternate reality by mirroring her personal moments of daily life, her childhood fantasies, and her nostalgic cultural ephemera.
Melissa Leandro (b. Miami, FL) received her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at the University of Nebraska Omaha; the Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Frieze Art Fair NYC’21, New York, NY; and more. Her work resides in the collections of Belgravia Group at Renelle, Chicago, IL; EAC Consulting, INC, Federal Reserve of Chicago, IL; The Estée Lauder Companies, New York, NY; Brown Legacy Group, Chicago, IL; and more. She has received numerous grants, awards, and residencies: The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation Chicago, Artadia Awardee, Brooklyn, NY; Wingate Artist Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT, and more.
