Orlando G. Leyba
Orlando G. Leyba, Artist and Educator
b. 1958, Española, NM
My work is the result of overlapping cultures, languages, and mores. These influences and experiences are distilled
into shape, color, emotion and movement. At times they are neither solid nor fluid; they are ephemeral and rooted
in human experiences – well-intentioned, cyclical, and inherently flawed.
My paintings are derived from nature — my grandfather’s land, ancestral land grants, irrigated fields, acequias that
my family has maintained for generations, etc. Custom lowrider cars, family and cultural dynamics, petroglyphs, art
history, the flotsam of childhood memories and an otherwise endless supply of imagery and stimulation from the
mass media.
These paintings meld the contradictions and dichotomies that I have witnessed in my own culture and within my
hometown, as well as concepts about time, the spirit world, human interaction and the diversity of factors that
influence change that we witness in the world from day to day. I see these compositions as intermediaries between
what is seen and what is assumed, what is plausible and what relies on faith. They are a human effort to bridge the
gap between the material and the spiritual. As George Braque said, “Art is made to disturb. Science reassures.
There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.”
It is my hope that while the viewer may not necessarily be able to explain these works, they will nevertheless trigger
different levels of cognizance and that they will ultimately provoke disquisition.
Education
Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Master of Fine Arts, Painting. May 1989.
Master of Art, Teaching. May 1987.
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art. May 1982.
Selected Exhibitions
Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, October 2016
Tafkaj Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2013
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque Now, 2009
Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, October 2008
Ellis-West Gallery, Durango, CO, May 2007
Gallery 516, Albuquerque, NM, April 2007
Santa Fe Community College Visual Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, October-November 2006
Thomas Ingerick Gallery, Aspen CO, 2004-2005
Shipley Gallery, Taos, NM, 2004-2005
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2004
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2002
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1998
Barischofsky Gallery, Sun Valley, ID, March-April 1996
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Group show, January 1996
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, September 1995
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, May 1994
Gallery Per Tutti, Boston, MA. National Painting Competition, February - March 1993
Hand Artes Gallery, Truchas, NM, August 1993
Space Gallery, Boston, MA, “Day of the Dead,” Nov. 1991
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, “Zip-Locked Sanctuary” (installation), Oct. 1991
Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA, Sept. 1991
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, Cerise Group Show, Dec. 1990
Fells Point Gallery, Baltimore, MD, 7th Annual Regional Juried Show, May 1989
Havre de Grace Gallery, East Coast Artist's Cooperative Annual Juried Exhibition, Havre de Grace, MD, June 1989
Academy of the Arts, 25th Annual Juried Exhibition, Easton, MD, April-June 1989
Gallery 409, Eubie Blake Cultural Center, “19 Visions/Divisions,” Baltimore, MD, June 1988
Collections
New Mexico State Capitol Permanent Collection, Santa Fe, NM, 2007
National Hispanic Cultural Center, Permanent Collection, Albuquerque, NM, 2006
Albuquerque Sunport Permanent Collection, Albuquerque, NM, 2001
Carnegie-Mellon University Permanent Collection, Pittsburgh, PA., 1998
Collection of Salvadore Scarpitta, New York, NY, 1989
Publications
Clemmer, “New Abstractions: Chante Series.” The Magazine, September 1990.
Fauntleroy, Gussie. “A Bridge Between Cultures.” Pasatiempo, August 1993.
Shipment of Mute Fate, by L. Crutchfield, McDougal, Littell, & Co., 1993, “Echar Luz Sobre Mis Raices,” used as illustration.
Wilson Lloyd, Ann. “Review: Zip-Locked Sanctuary.” Art in America, March 1992.
New Art, Harry Abrams Publishing, Inc, May 1990.
Lewthwaite, Stephanie. A Contested Art: Modernism and Mestizaje in New Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.