Leroy Campbell

Leroy Campbell is an American artist, recounting stories of his native land and culture contextualised with contemporary circumstances. He has exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami, among other cities. Replete with warm and homely scenes, they are draped with a maximalist backdrop. Although the figurative rendering is simplified, the recreated scenes are a provocative mixture of politics, myth and history. While some scenes show a mere portrait covered in newspaper cutouts, the others would show a man and woman conversing in a living room and several similar narratives became the marker of his artworks.

Campbell’s artworks solely deal with the subject of gardening and organic growth in a formal sense as well as through a mythical dimension. He tends to speak of his concern for humanity through his paintings. Colourful attires with stark dark skin colour figures occupy his paintings, depicting the African community. The relationship between past and present is highlighted in his works. Reflecting the persistent and unchanged relationship between the past and present, his practice is aligned with the stories of home, the core unit of society. His exposure to the urbane American space allows him to converge the two cultures flawlessly.

The vibrant paintings of the artist, depicting black families in a domestic setting conveys the themes of domesticity, family gatherings and intimate conversations. The interactive engaging moments of families where stories are passed from one generation to the other, efficiently articulates the artist’s concern to bridge the past and the future.

Leroy Campbell lives and works between Louisville and Brooklyn.