Anne Leone

Anne Leone was born in Los Angeles, California and lives in Berkley, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York. She has been featured in over 50 exhibitions. She was awarded a Mass Cultural Council Professional Development Grant as well as residencies at Millay Colony in Austerlitz N.Y. and Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. She is a Professor Emeritus of UMass Dartmouth, where she taught from 1987-2007.

Since 1994, Anne Leone has been making paintings of the human figure suspended in water. Beyond its metaphorical significance -- for life, birth, and purity – she is fundamentally interested in how swimmers move expressively and freely when released from the corporeal bounds of gravity. The setting for her recent works are the natural limestone ponds called “cenote” found near Tulum, Mexico. Though very deep and dark, the water is as clear as air, and coruscating light filters down from above, creating luminous color. This allows for a meditation on the freedom of movement, provoking feelings of isolation, serenity, confidence, fear, distress or joy.