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LEASHO JOHNSON

Artist Statement​
 

Leasho Johnson works in a multiplicity of mediums immortalising the dynamic energy of the Dancehall and engaging with cultural gender stereotypes and spectrums as expressed in Jamaican popular culture practise. His neon ceramic Avatars’ explicit sexual expressions, often merged with culturally specific materiality, offer new narratives to gender identity and fluidity, whilst his paintings utilise both traditional and contemporary materials to engage with constructs of Caribbean masculinity in his ancestral familial stories, and his interest in reinterpreting/interrupting the historical imagery of Empire with contemporary realities. Leasho’s work essentially explores the contestations and tensions in Jamaican culture and identity around sexuality and gender, and seeks to explore contemporary meanings in context to historical truths.

Born in St James, Jamaica in 1984, Leasho attended the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts. He obtained a BFA in Visual Communication in 2009. Leasho has shown his work locally at several National Gallery of Jamaica exhibitions, Young Talent, 2010; Jamaica Biennial 2012, 2014 and 2017, ‘We Have Met Before’, 2017, and New Local Space (NLS) ‘Belisario and the Soundboy’ 2016. Internationally Leasho has exhibited in ‘Jamaican Pulse: Art and Politics from Jamaica and the Diaspora’, Bristol, UK 2016, ‘Jamaican Routes’, Oslo, Norway 2016, ‘Jamaica Jamaica’, Philharmonie, Paris and Brazil, 2017 and 2018. ‘Of Skin and Sand’ National Gallery of Bahamas, 2017, and Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami 2017. Leasho is currently undertaking his MFA at School of Art Institute, Chicago, set to graduate in 2020

Press

curated by David Scott E rica Moiah James Nijah Cunningham

WE HAVE MET BEFORE

collaboration between

the British Council and the

National Gallery of Jamaica

ARC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Conversation With Leasho Johnson

By Tanisia MorrisMonday

, May 13th, 2013

SMALL AXE PROJECT

“Church inna Session”: Leasho Johnson, Mapping the Sacred through the Profane in Jamaican Popular Culture by Dr. Patricia Saunders

CQV, SMALL AXE PROJECT

WE HAVE MET BEFORE

collaboration between

the British Council and the

National Gallery of Jamaica

FADER INTERVIEW

Leasho Johnson’s sculptures, graphic designs, and murals explore dancehall music and culture.

By RIANNA JADE PARKER

LEASHO JOHNSON: IN THIS TIME

Deborah Anzinger introduces Jamaican artist Leasho Johnson

By Deborah Anzinger | Issue 120 (March/April 2013) 

AVAILABLE WORKS

1. Leasho Johnson

"Sugar daddy," 2018

Oil and vinyl on paper

60" × 50" inches 

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SOLD

2. Leasho Johnson

"Yeng yeng," 2018

Oil and vinyl on paper

60" × 50" inches 

SOLD
SWP_hopepageslides_Leasho.jpg

4. Leasho Johnson

"How to kill a sound boy," 2018

Earthen ware ceramics,

spray paint, vinyl record

13" × 13"x 15" inches 

6. Leasho Johnson

"Untitled," 2018

Acrylic on 18” diameter on

subwoofer speakers

7. Leasho Johnson

"Untitled ,"2018

Acrylic on 18” diameter on

subwoofer speakers

3. Leasho Johnson

"Big dawg," 2018

Oil and vinyl on paper

60" × 50" inches 

SOLD
SOLD

5. Leasho Johnson

"Walk like a dog #1," 2018

Earthen ware, Gold leaf, vinyl record

12" x 12" x 8.5" inches 

​

SOLD

8. Leasho Johnson

"Untitled ," 2018

Acrylic on 18” diameter on

subwoofer speakers

SOLD
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