Leanne Mair

Leanne Mair is a 23-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”.