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Genevieve Leavold is a self-taught painter.
Characterized by shifting organic forms, Genevieve Leavold’s enigmatic paintings and subtle drawings evoke a sense of things existing just outside the known world. Taking an intuitive approach to her practice, Leavold allows compositions to evolve as an attempt to communicate questions about civilisation and human nature. The forms within her work are extracted from glimpses of wilderness in urban landscapes.
Genevieve Leavold has exhibited across the UK, Europe and the US and has work in private collections worldwide.
The Book mentioned in the interview is The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
[…] Genevieve Leavold spoke to us from Belgrade where she has lived since 2014. Her decision was predicated on the desire to practice art full time. The self-taught artist has since devoted her time to enriching her craft and discovering her voice. Leavold connects to the slower pace of life in Belgrade as well as what she sees as a value of social space and time. Since moving to Belgrade, her work has evolved in radical ways. Prior to the move, she worked figuratively but since arriving in Belgrade her work has become largely abstract. The city itself informs her work and at the same time, she is developing methods of working. Genevieve considers this evolution and self-teaching her own version of an MFA without the need for formal education. Presently Leavold is working on a series of thematically linked paintings. For this series, she has, in a sense, introduced movement into the form whereas her older work felt largely static. Leavold has also changed materials more than once. When she arrived in Belgrade she began working largely in graphite but has since moved back toward oil paint. Leavold classifies her work as more philosophically motivated than politically motivated and says this suits her position as an artist in the time and place where she lives. To hear more from Genevieve Leavold, including her take on eastern philosophies and how they inform her life and work, listen to the full interview. […]