June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart at Grey Art Museum, NYU
Installation view of ''June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart.'' Courtesy Grey Art Museum, New York University. Photo: Mikhail Mishin.
Author: Yasmeen Abdallah
Shooting From the Heart, an expansive and breathtaking solo exhibition featuring countless works by June Leaf, is on view through December 13, 2025, at the Grey Art Museum at New York University. The show is thoughtfully curated thematically, rather than chronologically, which highlights the dexterity of ideas, materials, and methods within which the artist worked. Leaf’s career was longstanding and steadfast, spanning seven decades of artistic practice that investigated the curious, the uncanny, the divine, and the explicitly human. Inquisitiveness, humor, and grit are evident cornerstones of Leaf’s legacy.
Originally from Chicago and a student of the New Bauhaus, she spent time in Paris and Nova Scotia before settling in New York, where she became a fixture of the city’s vibrant art community. Working across sculpture, drawing, film, painting, collage, and more, her investigations through assemblage, welding, documentation, and life studies underscored her interests in the relationships between the urbanity in which she existed and the relationships to it amongst those inhabiting it.
The exhibition was curated by Allison Kemmerer, the Mary Stripp and R. Crosby Kemper Director of Addison Gallery of American Art; Gordon Wilkins, the Robert M. Walker Curator of American Art, at Addison Gallery of American Art; and Sam Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, at Allen Memorial Art Museum. The exhibition was previously on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
The interdisciplinary curation allows visitors to move between the various scales, media, and characters that Leaf folds into this whimsical universe. Recurring motifs and gestures become familiar friends in this way, and framed works on the walls lay the foundation for metal sculptures that occupy space with commanding presence. Painterly works also hold ground, deftly referencing the western canon of painting at one moment, and referencing set design the next. This is a testament to Leaf’s ability to masterfully craft abstract narratives that are formed of similar language but glide through various dialects in a nomadic dance of artistry.
This enchanting survey of Leaf’s illustrious career is filled with delightful discoveries that paint a vibrant life of a brilliant soul. Throughout the exhibit, we experience how she sought to turn sketches into paintings and renderings into sculptures. Leaf had a way of translating ideas through various materials and methods, and viewers are offered the opportunity to make these connections throughout multiple works on display.
Sculptural works stand formidable, powerful, and looming, their scale exuding dominance and confidence. The two-dimensional works that line the walls are thoughtful, at times melodic, or melancholy, or orchestrated narratively. Her versatility across media and scale knew no bounds; like an accordion, she expanded and contracted depth and space seemingly as easily as breathing. This flexing of her talents and abilities underscores her prowess in melding ideas and sentiments with form. What we see is that Leaf never ceased to experiment, to deconstruct, and to approach her work with genuineness. Works were made with deft hands, and the mind of a curious thinker.
The playful range of tensions between figuration and abstraction never ceases to give way to new forms, almost like siblings: each time, different traits carry through, always resembling the others, but with different attributes taking prominence with each new iteration. The curation feels a bit like a family reunion as well; a reconvening of works born from different periods of the artist’s life. Metal mingles with charcoal, but they all bear the same beautiful craftsmanship and dedicated focus that made Leaf the magnificent visionary that we know her to be. Shooting From the Heart is an exhibition that is thoughtful in its construction, curation, and points of entry for the public. Furthermore, it is a welcome ode to the great Leaf, and the legacy she has built over her long career that is worthy of her genius, and a gift for all who admire her.
Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, professor, museum worker, and community organizer. Focused on history, contemporary culture, social engagement, and decolonial practice, her work is in public, private, and traveling collections. Abdallah’s writing practice includes poetry, essays, art criticism, interviews, research, and reviews for various publications. She is based in New York.
Installation view of ''June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart.'' Courtesy Grey Art Museum, New York University. Photo: Mikhail Mishin.