From a studio space in VAllejo Ca
Leah Tumerman constructs narrative scenes taking cues from intuitively applied under-paintings. She watches for the emergence of figurative subject matter and then edits towards an oblique finish. Reveling in the implied relationships between bodies based on physical posture and placement alone, Leah abstracts the form to equalize and universalize. Figures exist on the same plane; they can be found in physical communion, communicating with secret languages, creating anti-linear structures or attending intentional gatherings. Often it is unclear where one form starts and others begin and this is belonging.
A body composed of color material is the artist's pursuit of new flesh unburdened by cycling collective misappropriation and definition. Isolated figures explore inner vs. outer worlds, the impossibility of singularity, the improbability of holiness. Text pieces enter the collection providing character vocalizations, off-stage insight or a chorus’s response to the play at hand.
Belmont University, Studio Art & Education, Painting Emphasis BFA 2005
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Creative Writing, MFAW 2008
Photo: Jason Elewski
exhibitioN/group
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago IL 2020 Self Portraits
Open House Contemporary, Chicago IL 2020 intimacy and influence
3rd Street Village, San Francisco CA 2017 you have a voice
Project Gallery, Los Angeles CA 2016 illustrative minds
Kitty Hawk Gallery, Sebastopol CA 2015 two hundred show
Abrams Claghorn, Albany CA 2015
SOMA Cultural Arts, San Francisco CA 2014
Gallery 121, Nashville TN 2012
Loyola University Mundelein Center for the Arts, 2011
Ainsworth Gallery, Joliet IL 2011 i dreamt, i dream
G2 Chicago IL 2007
Galleria Gianonne, Forte Di Marmi, IT 2006
Photo: Christopher Strum
exhibition/solo
Baana, SF, January – April 2018 leisure
The Mill, SF, May of 2017 invisible string
18 Reasons, San Francisco CA 2016 hunter/gatherer
FIDO Nashville TN 2012 for the sea lies all around us
Photo: SF Chronicle
awards/honors
California Arts Council Grant Recipient 2022, 2023
SFAC StreetSmArts Selected Muralist 2020-2022
Vermont Studio Center Resident November-December 2018
Visit Oakland Public Art Grant 2017/2018
Feature in Maker’s Magazine July 2017 :: ISSUE 4
Feature in SF Magazine April 2017, The Future is Communal
SFOpen Studios Top Ten Artists to See in 2014, San Francisco, CA
DePaul University, Chicago, Guest Lecturer 2010
Belmont University Writing Award 2005
Frank Leu Russel III Scholarship for Outstanding Artist 2003
posse
a group of people with common characteristic, occupation, purpose
