Nicolás Leiva

courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio

Nicolás Leiva is renowned for his exuberant sculptures and paintings that capture various expressive personal visions. Vessels, boats, abstract forms, flying carriages are transformed into ceramics in an explosion of lush primary colors embossed with metals like silver and gold. Animals and vegetables commingle in a garden of flowers amidst otherworldly places of shelter, are replicated as box-like reliquaries, and plate-like medallions in miniature close-up show territories transitioned from his works on paper. His imaginative world unfolds in infinite realms like a Möbius strip. Highly gestural, organic, or geometric, Leiva presents a host of archetypes in his emblems of flight, safety, and delight.

Born in 1958 in Tucumán, Argentina, Leiva graduated from the Fine Arts School of the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. He continued his studies in Buenos Aires and moved to Miami in 1990. In 1996, he extended his practice to sculpture and ceramics. He lives part-time in Faenza, Italy, where he works with a variety of materials at the workshops of Ceramica Gatti. His work is the subject of the 2005 monograph Nicolas Leiva: The Fire of Self and Multiplication with scholarly text by Ricardo Pau-Llosa and Mariza Vescovo published by Bandecchi & Vivaldi in Italy. He has had many important solo and group exhibitions in the US and internationally, notably his 2023 solo exhibition, Historia de un día, Museo de Bellas Artes Laureano Brizuela, Catamarca, Argentina. Leiva was recently selected for the 2023 Miami Individual Artist (MIA) Grant, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs in Miami, FL. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA); The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana; the Berardo Collection in Lisbon, Portugal; the Gollinelli Collection in Bologna, Italy; and the Museum of Art of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. The Civic Museum of Marble, Carrara, Italy; Museo Maria Zambrano, Malaga, Spain; José Luis Cuevas Museum, Mexico City, México; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; and Fundación Federico García Lorca, Madrid, Spain.

Nicolás Leiva, Sopera, 2015 Signed and dated on the underside Majolica ceramic with gold and platinum lustrous Ceramica Gatti, Italy 17 x 18 x 17 in. courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio.
Nicolás Leiva, Sopera, 2015 Signed and dated on the underside Majolica ceramic with gold and platinum lustrous Ceramica Gatti, Italy 17 x 18 x 17 in. courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio.
Nicolás Leiva, Sea Flora, 2024 Signed and dated on the underside Majolica ceramic with gold 35 x 15 x 15 in. courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio.
Nicolás Leiva, Arbol de los Sueños (Tree of Dreams), 2017 Signed and dated on the underside Majolica ceramic with gold and lustrous Ceramica Gatti, Italy 30 in diameter. courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio.
Nicolás Leiva

Nicolás Leiva

courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, New York / San Antonio Nicolás Leiva is renowned for his exuberant sculptures and paintings that capture various expressive personal visions. Vessels, boats, abstract forms, flying carriages are transformed into ceramics in an explosion of...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Duane Michals

Duane Michals (b. 1932, McKeesport, PA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text. Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s....

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Larissa Bates

Larissa Bates (b. 1981, Burlington, VT) was raised between Vermont and Vara Blanca, Costa Rica. She received a BA from Hampshire College, MA. Recent exhibitions include Taymour Grahne, London, Myriam Chair Galerie, Paris; and Monya Rowe Gallery, NY. In 2024, her work...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Mara De Luca

Mara De Luca’s (b. 1973, Washington D.C.) paintings evoke a sense of atmospheric abstractions that bring to mind dusk, sunsets, and planetary orbs. Throughout her work there is a sense of reflected ambient light. De Luca’s work today extends the...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Eun-Ha Paek

Eun-Ha Paek in her studio in Brooklyn, 2024. Photo by Helmi Korhonen. Courtesy of Hostler Burrows Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Eun-Ha Paek’s sculptures give physical form to the artist’s inner narratives and personal history, while exploring broader themes of...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Fanny Allié

Fanny Allié was born in Montpellier, South of France. She received her Master’s Degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (The National School of Photography) in Arles, France in 2005 and moved to New York City. Princeton University, Equity...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Emma McMillan

Photo by Dan McMahon Born 1989 Atlanta, Georgia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the Bronx, New York. Emma McMillan searches for the pulsing vitality of life through non-human figurative paintings. Drawing, collage, macroscopic photography, and archival...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Greg Chann

Greg Chann has shown his work with Denise Bibro Fine Art, NYC; Dorsky Gallery, NYC; Margaret Thatcher Projects, NYC; The Drawing Center, NYC; among other spaces around the country. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, NY Arts, and Time Out New York. He has...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Jessica Helfand

Photo: by Philip Bennett Jessica Helfand (b. 1960) is an artist and writer. She grew up in Paris and New York City, and received her BA and MFA from Yale University where she taught for more than two decades. She is the author of numerous books on visual and cultural...

read more
Nicolás Leiva

Alan Bray

Alan Bray was born in Waterville, Maine, and grew up in Monson, a small slate-quarrying town set in the northern reaches of the Appalachians. Bray attended the Art Institute of Boston before graduating from the University of Southern Maine; he received his MFA in...

read more