Driven by an archaeological impulse, Dene Leigh intertwines autobiographical and fictional fragments of history and historical memory in painting, drawing, and sculptural work that share a foundational urge to unearth and preserve the psychic and cultural artifacts of time’s passing.
Having always been extremely close with his grandfather, Leigh’s interest in the themes of recollection, time’s passing, and nostalgia developed as a way to seek sanctuary after the relative’s experience with neurological impairment after a stroke. Drawing from the trauma of this cognitive dislocation, Leigh’s work imagines a physical shape of introspective rumination—one that collects memories and their material embodiments in the external world on a flat indexical collage board of the mind.
Dene’s trompe l’oeil paintings draw from a wide range of real found objects, tokens of personal value, and imagined artifacts in structurally dense, sculptural-seeming compositions executed in a style reminiscent of Old Master technical exercises and Surrealist collages. These dream-like compositions, bound together with bold shadows and lavishly diverse imagery, question the reliability and veracity of mnemonic recollection and its reliance on the world’s objects. Here, precise figurative depictions of loved ones hold together blurred imagery and fleeting moments in time alongside invented characters, exacerbating the challenges of recollection and temporality of memory itself.
Leigh unearths and halts the decaying process of aged materials, incorporating objects from his childhood alongside an arbitrary collection of found items. He preserves, modifies, and combines these materials, redefining their meaning, sentimental value, form, and status into inherently ambiguous compositions. He reveals the interconnectedness of formerly varying materials and decontextualizes others while unifying moments in time.
About the artist
Dene Leigh is a British artist, born in 1989, who lives and works in London, UK. He studied at Wimbledon College of Arts, London. His work has been featured in Art Maze Magazine, Hi-Fructose Magazine, and Daily Serving. Leigh won the SPACE Artist Awards in 2021 and was shortlisted for prestigious prizes, including The Brewers Towner International 2022, The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2021, The Young Masters Art Prize 2014, and The Clyde & Co Awards 2012. Leigh has held solo exhibitions at Baert Gallery in Los Angeles and participated in group exhibitions at various notable galleries, including The Royal Academy of Art, London; Canterbury Museums; Gallery Rosenfeld, London; Towner Eastbourne; and MK Gallery. In 2022-2023, he was commissioned to create a painting for the Mirror Mirror exhibition at The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge, Canterbury, in partnership with The National Portrait Gallery, London. This painting is now part of the permanent public collection at Canterbury Museums and Galleries.