Gwyneth Leech

New York, NY

BIO

Gwyneth Leech is a New York City based artist. Her paintings of high-rise construction express the optimism and anxiety of rapid change in the urban environment. She has been featured in solo and group shows throughout the United States and Great Britain and is the subject of a multi-award-winning documentary, The Monolith. Her paintings are in numerous private and construction industry corporate collections. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.

I am an artist living and working in Manhattan and the city has been my subject since moving here in 1999. I currently make paintings in oils and acrylics of skeletal, unfinished skyscrapers under construction around me in Midtown. I work in series that can span months or years, capturing building phases in accurate detail and rich color. My paintings document change and the in-between stages of buildings, capturing temporary shapes that New Yorkers live with as part of the cityscape for long periods of time.

You'll like Gwyneth if: you can’t help but belt out the lyrics of “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra whenever you hear it

My focus on construction as subject matter began in 2015 when a 42 floor building went up right outside my painting studio window in the Garment District. I was losing a view I loved, but decided to give this unwanted change my full attention. I made scores of drawings and paintings of the whole construction process from the foundation up. By the time it topped out the subject matter had become an enduring fascination.

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