Check out Andrea de Leon’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea de Leon.

Andrea, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
It’s been an interesting evolution, in hindsight. I was the first of my family to be born in the U.S. but I consider Monterrey, Mexico my hometown I lived there during my most formative years. I never considered myself to be very artistic but (to my surprise) I got accepted to attend Savannah College of Art and Design in 2007. I studied Architecture and Industrial Design for a couple of years. My attraction to the design process made me want to learn about all mediums and techniques, so I transferred to the University of Texas Studio Arts program. At the time, it allowed flexibility to explore various areas of study instead of strictly pursuing four years in the same field. I gravitated towards working in three-dimensional mediums like ceramics, installation, and sculpture, but what truly set me off was metalsmithing. Working with metals requires a deep understanding of material, physics and heat control – it became a strong foundation for building patience and an eye for detail.

After graduating I found a job learning glassblowing. It was my first introduction to glass production on lathes. To be perfectly honest I was just excited to have a torch in my hand for most of the day. These technical skills transferred when I was hired to fabricate and machine custom parts for electron microscopes. I didn’t know it at the time, but these are invaluable skills that are harder to come by since everything is now done by CNC machines. Consequently, it opened up some doors down the line. There are so many overlaps between artistic craft and science; most people consider them to be completely separate things but in fact craft is science.

After a few years, I had a friend encourage me to get involved with a metalsmithing school called Creative Side Jewelry Academy. I never even considered the thought of teaching, but as soon as I walked in the metals studio I was back in my element. Teaching felt like a very genuine and natural thing to do; I’ve been a teacher there for the past four years. I’m so grateful to have the chance to keep learning and pay it forward.

There those times when you meet someone that completely changes your course. Thomas Rucker, a custom knifemaker, had a significant impact on me when I was introduced to him. I was hungry to learn everything I could about this particular trade and persuaded him to let me assist him in his shop. After only a week of helping him with production, I continued to educate myself on how to make fixed blades and have been making custom knives ever since. The learning never stops; it’s a humbling craft. It makes the neurotic hours of obsessing over these tools completely worth it.

In the fall of 2015, I found a family of artists that were working towards building something new. In my experience living in Texas, I find that people do things on their own terms. We wanted to create a space to exhibit our work and contribute new energy to the Austin art community. We found an old autobody shop rebuilt the space into a gallery. Being part of an artist-run collective allowed for innovative programming. They are now part of Canopy in Austin where you can their monthly exhibitions.

Because I’ve always looked to step outside my comfort zone, I’ve managed to do some traveling to gain more experience. I’ve been awarded scholarships to attend artist residencies in glass at Ox-Bow School of Art and Penland School of Crafts, took flameworking workshops in Murano, Italy, assisted fabrication for artist Frank Buchwald in Berlin, Germany, and visited foundries in Holland. This past year I took a summer apprenticeship in scientific glassblowing in the Chicago area. This winter season was spent in Los Angeles supporting Neptune Glassworks with their custom glassware production and lighting installations.

Even though I might not realize it at the moment, all my experiences organically build on one another. It wouldn’t even be possible without the people that are willing to give me a shot. I don’t want to be defined by a single thing or medium – that is why I’m always pursuing an opportunity to learn. Even though it’s a constant challenge to balance life, the momentum keeps leading me to the next thing.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Despite the diversity in my work, there has always been a common thread focusing on the metaphysical. It comes from an introspective place; honestly, it’s simply my way of trying to make sense of things. The intention behind my sculptural practice is to expose the phenomena that most of us tend to oversee. Even though it may seem esoteric at first glance, the designs are always grounded in fundamental scientific concepts. Themes of light, equilibrium, optics, and evolution tend to come up often. The exchange between heat and kinetic energy that is required in order to create the work is reflected in the final pieces; it’s the cycle of action and reaction that perpetuates the ideas behind the work.

Using a variety of materials like wood, ceramics, glass and metal, my recent body of work has a more psychological approach. Some pieces feature symmetrical imagery that alludes to Rorschach tests. Each of these designs stems from the same image that I distort in different ways. It reestablishes the concept of various evolutions coming from a singular origin. I like to maintain abstraction in order to allow the pieces to become multi-dimensional. Instead of having a static object, I want it to be able to unfold into different things depending on how it’s read by an audience. Simultaneously, it can reveal something about the viewer according to their translation.

The new focus on geometrical structures I’ve been making were initially inspired by neural networks used to design systems of artificial intelligence. The meshwork of information attempts to mimic the way we perceive. However, I never have a predetermined design for these frameworks. I simply start building and rely on intuition, spontaneity, and sense of proportion to build volume with negative space. Depending on what materials I introduce within the pockets of the architecture it seems to generate a sense of paradox for me. Is the object within it being protected or constrained? Is there harmony within the tension of materials? The process lets me indulge in experimentation.

I consider all of my work a form of epistemological curiosity. Basically, It’s my way of staying sane and engaged. My aesthetic presents a cerebral landscape for the fluctuating ideas I’m trying to understand. I know what the piece means to me, but I’m not trying to impose that on anyone else. What I want is for the viewer to think for themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.andreadeleon.com
• Instagram: @thedrestroyer

  Image Credit:
Andrea de Leon
Portrait picture by Sibelle Yusek

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