GWQA with KATYA LEONOVI
The incredibly intoxicating erotica of your transgressive canvases is why GW now proclaims Katya Leonovich one of the most provocative female painters in New York City who is undeniable in re-imagining what The Culture defines as ”The Male Gaze”.GW- Define the apparent signature of your work, its societal themes, and your unmistakable fascination with phallomania. In other words–penis!KL- Someone defined it as “Art Brut,” but I will say — it’s “Art Skinless”. It doesn’t please, but makes the viewers partial. I am flirting with history and political events. This is what people are talking about. I am not like Louise Bourgeois whose sculptures were really phallomaniacal. I just adore everything about male’s body.
GW- There is no denying your art is quite homo-erotic, and to be defined from the eye and hand of a woman is what makes your florid figurative nudes all the more transgressive.
KL- Why everybody think that women supposed to paint flowers and butterflies , shabby babies and sunsets? We were only models for male artists for centuries. Now is the time for revenge.
GW- Your first career as an avant-garde fashion designer thrust to fame and fortune by Elio Fiorucci of the famous Fiorucci label of the 70’s fashion era. You studied at the Moscow Textile Institute, then somehow ended up in Rome and being discovered by Fiorucci. Could you read us through the trajectory from Moscow to Rome to designing for Madonna and Cyndi Lauper?
KL- I was award winner of several fashion competitions. The one that had been held in Italy where Elio Fiorucci was the chairman of the jury I also won. And I was sent to Fashion house Gattinoni for internship. And that was Rome. And they hired me as first assistant of head designer. Three yeas later I opened my own brand in Italy. Showed high fashion in Paris. And then it was New York where I showed at Lincoln Center and Piers 59. And my dresses was purchased by Cyndi Lauper, Carrie Underwood and others…
GW- You disrupted the whirl of ready-to-wear, and now you are disrupting the art whirl with your bravura!
KL- Fashion is seasonal, art is immortal. Fashion is all about style. This is the top destination of fashion. My intervention in art world has to be opposite of stylization and plagiarism.
GW- No other art gallery in the prime Chelsea art mecca is so disrupting the process. Not only do you create the art, but you also own the gallery where your work is on permanent display! Is this the business model to success?
KL- In one interview the gallerist Mary Boone said: at the time of 80th I was listening to the artists and I showed Basquiat that was recommended by artist Julian Schnabel. And it was a great success. I think that being the artist and the gallery owner same time will help me to meet the viewers tête-à-tête and get the feedback without the middleman – curator. I understand artists profoundly and I will find new “stars” to show in my space. And we’ll live happily in my “home” that I called “Planet Katya.”
GW- Do you plan to stage, embrace, and display the art of other artists besides yourself and be the visionary gallerist the Katya Leonovich Gallery now needs to demonstrate? Your next added role has to be ‘Community Curator’ and help highlight other art and artists.
KL- This is my plan too. In fact I will be showing group exhibition of NAWA members in my gallery in June. National Association of Women Artists of America. I am really excited about this project.
GW- Talk us through the inspiration and creative process for your current one-woman-one-gallery show – Walk The Line, which seems inspired by a bunch of naked dudes hanging out in cowboy hats at some honky-tonk in Nashville.
KL- There is a word in Italian “grintoso”. The translation in English doesn’t define it correctly. In English translation it’s: forceful, spunky, spirited, gutsy and more… Anyway I feel this about the middle America. Wild West and Country music. I was listening to Country songs while painting this series. It’s fascinating life style and unique music. Jonny Cash, Jonny Paycheck, Cody Wolfe, Darius Rucker. In some paintings I portrait some of them. Literally.
GW- Your work, we reiterate– is so homo-erotic that it is a shock to find this is the work of a heterosexual woman who is also happily married! And your husband is your ultimate muse. Is this so?
KL- One does not interfere with the other. The gender differences can’t be a problem when the imagination of the artist takes over. I can imagine myself as a man, as an animal, as a plant. And happy to be alive and mimicking myself in different forms. My husband has light athletic shape. I used his measurements for my menswear collection. My models were 19 years boys. It feet perfectly on them. Now my husband is a model for the artwork.
GW- Discuss now your innovative flair with the new works of sculpture.
KL- My high fashion collections I used to call “moving sculptures”. So it’s time to actually do it. Came out effortlessly. Just to assemble it took some practice working with wood. I destroyed three guitars, cut in parts and reassembled it. In the context of the show these sculptures represent women’s bodies. O
GW- Are you concerned with over-production? You claim to be able to complete one painting in a day!
KL- I will rent another storage. Until my artworks will move to museums. And yes, I am terribly productive. I think fast I move fast as Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction movie…
GW- Was the Art Miami art fair last season a success for your brand?
KL- Unfortunately I didn’t do right research. I should’ve show in Untitled instead. Next time I’ll study more carefully.
GW- And finally– an out-of-the-blue question- but what would be the one late-night
craving habit that you have managed to kick. Would it be sex?
KL- I love to play with my pet rat. Her name is Frida. Sex is better in the morning.
