Leanne Mair is a 24-year-old Jamaican artist; born, raised and living in
Kingston. Her very first encounter with paint at 8 years old sparked an undeniable
passion for the arts. Although her parents were not artistically inclined, her aunt was
an avid painter and sculptor who began Leanne’s early informal training. She pursued
painting at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where she
obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art. While enrolled at the institution, she received honour
awards in 2017, a scholarship from the CB Facey Foundation in 2018 and the Ebony
Patterson Scholarship in 2019. She received the Albert Huie Award at her graduation
for most outstanding painting student of 2019.
Although Leanne’s primary mediums are oil and acrylic on canvas, the artist
explores many other contemporary and traditional mediums and genres such as
assemblage, mixed media, textiles, fibre arts and drawing. Her work is heavily
influenced by her experiences as a black, Caribbean woman and how that experience
relates to post-colonial society and cultures within the African Diaspora. Most of her
work challenges and celebrates the complexity and diversity of black culture through
juxtaposed imagery in portraiture or nonrepresentational collage. She also explores
abstraction and symbolism in art and life. Her very first exhibition was at the
Mandeville Art Fair in 2016. She also exhibited at the Liguanae Art Fair in 2018 and
the Kingston Creative exhibit in 2019 on Harbour Street. She has also performed live
paintings at the Rebel Salute Launch in 2019 and the online Rebel Salute concert in
2021. Exceptional pieces to mention that have been featured on art blogs and in
newspaper articles include “Ghosts of the Urban Landscape” and “Pan African”