LAUNCH Gallery is proud to present the fourth solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist Leigh Salgado. In her current series, As the World Turns, Leigh continues her intricate, meditative process of cutting, painting and collaging paper to create objects of depth and beauty.
Salgado investigates ideas of the feminine as an act of female empowerment. These works communicate a wide array of emotions and ideas of gender, identity, culture and beauty.
I began this series of work thinking about planets, circles, roundness, and the unending line. The planet we inhabit will continue to exist, will keep on turning and changing despite ecological, political, or social upheavals that haunt us. The title is taken from a midcentury television soap opera.
Although some of the work still consists of hand-cut paper pieces floating independent of a structure, much of my current work collages them onto painted panels to create lacy, patterned elements that add texture and dimension.
The worlds manifested in these works are feminized, in sync with my ongoing interest in the experience of being a female. My continued attraction to imagery associated with girly-ness, femininity and eroticism here includes womanly shapes, lace and floral motifs, along with intimations of lingerie.
In contrast to our personal dramas, collective crises, and the ongoing nightmares we all endure to varying degrees, I envision a world of beauty, sensuality, and wonder. This exhibit is about the fleeting, spinning, ever-changing nature of what we encounter through our limited senses, feelings and spiritual understanding.
Salgado studied painting, sculpture and graphic arts at UCLA and continued her art studies at the former Santa Monica College of Design, Art & Architecture. Her most recent Museum show Dress Rehearsal included works from several Southern California artists from July 2019 – January 2020. Among her many solo shows: LAUNCH Gallery, MOAH (The Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, California), Patricia Correia Gallery, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.