“Nobody could ever fully fathom my inner thoughts, least of all me,” stated the late artist June Leaf in a 2010 interview, reflecting on her artistic awakening as a child in Chicago. “Little did [my mother] know that what was developing under her roof was akin to a volcanic eruption.” This context helps explain why many of Leaf’s artworks feature explosive figures and spaces, as if overflowing from within. Throughout her life, Leaf recalled episodes of intense artistic self-discovery — her creativity emerging in bursts she described as sometimes “ecstatic.” She viewed her artistic journey as inextricably linked to these moments of inspiration.
Thus, the exhibition Shooting from the Heart, a retrospective of Leaf, who passed away just over a year ago at the age of 94, organizes 120 works thematically rather than chronologically. This exhibition was co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts — where it first appeared — and the Allen Memorial Art Gallery at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, its next destination. Both institutions have a long-standing connection to Leaf’s oeuvre. Currently, it is on display at the Grey Art Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side, an area where she spent considerable time over the years. Overall, the show encapsulates Leaf’s ongoing experimentation across various media, as well as the dynamic, performance-like qualities of her pieces, infused with a playful, carnivalesque spirit. However, it doesn’t quite capture the chaotic essence of her creative process, which provides the most authentic setting to engage with her art.
Though Leaf garnered a devoted audience and her work received recognition during her lifetime — most notably with a 2016 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art — she remains somewhat underappreciated. This may stem from her unique geographical and artistic positioning, which, while maintaining close connections with fellow artists, set her apart from the mainstream. Starting in the 1970s, Leaf spent significant time in Mabou, located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where the serene and wild environment fueled her relentless experimentation with diverse materials and styles. Initially, she focused on painting; over time, she began exploring found objects, often creating works with a sense of literal movement.
Her artistic approach consistently leaned toward the figurative, influenced early on by her loose affiliations with artists such as Leon Golub and the Chicago Monster Roster, alongside inspirations from Paul Klee and Jean Dubuffet. Her education and teaching at the New Bauhaus in Chicago shaped her belief that art should not merely pursue purity of form. Though occasionally venturing into abstraction, particularly in her striking drawings that often feature blurred and mottled textures, she consistently engaged with the world and its absurdities. A series of whimsical glasses reminiscent of inverted microscope lenses underscores this, notably in the work “Glasses” (2003), included in the Grey Art Gallery’s current exhibition.
Having studied dance as a teenager, Leaf’s friend Joan Jonas highlights in the exhibition catalog’s foreword that elements of performance were always present in her movements and creative process. Viewing Leaf’s work becomes a journey through space and time, traversing various scales and encountering recurring figures, both monumental and diminutive, ultimately conveying the essence of a life experienced alongside a body of work. The exhibition embodies this best in a section titled “To Create Life Out of Life,” named after one of her drawings, where her characters ascend, soar, and seek equilibrium. Sometimes they navigate this journey solo, as seen in the dynamic 3D painting “Tight Rope Walker” (1968), featured in her breakout exhibition at Allan Frumkin Gallery, and at other times they engage in partnership, as in the piece “Man and Woman Hunting on the Ice” (1976), highlighting a playful yet provocative perspective on gender dynamics running throughout her entire oeuvre.
With her carnivalesque themes — elements like arcades, miniature theaters, and hobby horses recurring throughout her work — Leaf aligns herself with artists such as Alexander Calder. However, she often places her figures, particularly women, in what appear to be ominous, psychologically charged contexts. In a series of creations from the 1980s, for instance, a woman’s head seems to inflate dramatically, almost at the brink of bursting. The exhibition catalog notes that Leaf would frequently sit at her mother’s feet while the latter operated a treadle sewing machine; this evokes the uncanny sculptures of Louise Bourgeois, who crafted her work influenced by her own maternal relationship centered around weaving. Indeed, the 1978 sculpture “Woman Theater,” where a painted figure operates a puppet theater from her center, draws a parallel to Bourgeois’ Femme Maison motif from the 1940s.
Leaf was known to collect treadles for use in her artistry. One of her most captivating pieces includes “Untitled (Theater)” (2011), showcasing two small figures inside a large, freestanding shadow box, evoking dreamlike scenarios akin to an empty hall or the interior of a covered wagon, where the echoes of memories seem to resonate. These installations are deeply personal and interactive — it made me wish this exhibition provided ways to engage with these small machines or experience them within the context of a chaos reflective of her studio spaces, likely the ideal setting for discovery. Unfortunately, retrospectives tend to streamline the experience, although future public events will likely feature interactive elements with select works. (This is similar to how Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan activated pieces during a Tinguely exhibition last year.) Nevertheless, these artworks are designed to elicit an internal kinetic response within viewers — mirroring the interplay between the external and internal that was central to her life’s work.
June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart is currently on view at the Grey Art Museum at New York University (18 Cooper Square, East Village, Manhattan) until December 13. The exhibition is co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Ohio. The exhibition was curated by Allison Kemmerer, Gordon Wilkins, and Sam Adams.
