Lee Leibrandt, Heady Scents, 2023. Image courtesy of Grace Costa.
Lee Leibrandt
Gallery 2
Friday 17 May - Sunday 9 June
Opening Thursday 16 May 2024, 6pm - 8pm
‘Field of Vision’ is a collection of woven tapestries reflecting the connection between the natural landscape and personal experience of place. In combining the traditional medium of tapestry weaving with modern design elements of mixed-media collage and mark making, pattern and colour manifest as dream-like representations via a meditative and intentional practice.
Lee Leibrandt leans into her muse of the natural world, with work informed by the Australian landscape. Living and creating on Ngunnawal Country, many of Lee’s tapestries draw from exploratory walks at Mount Majura Nature Reserve. In narrowing her field of vision, she documents the little moments observed. Each piece infused with emotion and memory from a point in time, by way of shape and shadow, and pops of colour along the way. Of note, Lee’s Woodland Dreams trilogy is a story of hope – of emerging from lockdown and the restorative power one can find in nature.
These core pieces are complemented by additional work derived from Woolshed Falls, Victoria, as well as Hartz Peak trail and Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. Five additional “magazine-collage” tapestries, woven in response to the early days of COVID-19, demonstrate how Lee’s work has evolved over time.
A selection of reference materials on display provide insight into Lee’s design process. This includes original collages and line drawings (cartoons), as well as small, woven study pieces. Visitors are invited to handle any materials with care.
Lee wishes to acknowledge that grant funding awarded by the Capital Arts Patrons’ Organisation (Workplace Research Associates Award) enabled the purchase of weaving materials for work created throughout 2023.
Lee Leibrandt, studio portrait, 2020. Image courtesy of Grace Costa.
About the Artist
Lee Leibrandt is an early career Canberra-based tapestry weaver, developing a body of work, predominantly informed by the Australian landscape.
Lee's work has been exhibited in numerous group shows, including in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. She was a finalist in The Corner Store Gallery Mini Series Art Prize 2019 and Blacktown City Art Prize 2020. In 2021, Lee was awarded High Commendations in both the Irene Davies Emerging Artist Award for Small Tapestries and Gosford Art Prize. In October 2022, Lee was part of an invitational creative exchange between the Gallery of Small Things, Canberra and the Australian Design Centre, Sydney. In November of the same year, Lee received the Workplace Research Associates Award by the Capital Arts Patrons’ Organisation.
