02/03/2021
REXER GALLERY presents
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LEANDRO COMRIE
UPCOMING SOLO EXHIBITION
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18
7-10pm
636 Washington Street
Hoboken, NJ
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Leandro Comrie is a Brooklyn-born artist of Venezuelan and Panamanian descent who explores the power of memory, identity and culture and how they are shaped or influenced by politics and society depending of our geography.
Leandro Comrie (b. 1973) recently completed his residency with the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation (ESKFF) at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ and has exhibited extensively for the past eighteen years in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and across seas in Toulouse, France.
I have always been interested in people and their stories. As a kid, I would sit in my aunt’s and godmother’s kitchen, respectively, and listen to their stories. The stories were about them and other people, but far from being gossip oriented; they were focused on life experiences and lessons on how to approach life from a kinder perspective.
Those conversations left a seed in me, and I watched it grow through the years and realized how easy it was for me to connect to people emotionally. I had learned to welcome people and their stories. At some point, I considered studying psychology, convinced it was the best way to put this trait to good use, but I turned to painting instead.
Through painting, I am able to connect not only with other people’s stories but also with my own. No painting reveals a specific story, but instead, they are the sum of many stories. My subject matter tends to be broad, and inclusive for this reason. I don’t wish to paint solely about one story or focus on one sentiment. The human experience is a combination of emotions that rise and subside. Therefore, my work can be a mix of heartbreak, love, death, friendship, lust, kindness, sexuality, spirituality among other things, things that as human beings we can relate to.
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