CONTACT

LeopoldMasterson@gmail.com

ABOUT

Leopold Masterson (b. 1985) is a visual artist who lives and works in New York City. He also runs E. Foxe Harrell, an art and antique jewelry business, with Sam Gassman..

My works are fragments of stories that have not fully been told. To build these tales, my process resembles the practices of conservators, archaeologists, and collectors who meticulously reconstruct objects and collections of things to reveal another time. I collect images and shards, assemble ideas and re-imagine objects. They are then disassembled, warped, rearranged, erased and stretched. Each artwork is part of a larger narrative with segments of the plot pulled out, leaving behind the space for future ideas to enter. With clay as the solid core and plot of my work, these stories have no choice but to tell the fevered dreams carved into their surfaces. Each wheel-thrown gesture is a sentence, each drip of color a paragraph, each faceless character a reflection of a chapter.

CV

Artistic Training

2011 Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) • Providence, RI • Master of Fine Arts

2008 The University of Iowa • Iowa City, IA • Bachelor of Fine Arts • Ceramics

2007 The University of Iowa • Iowa City, IA • Bachelor of Science and Nursing

Public Collections

2022 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art • Cedar Rapids, IA

2021 Musée des Arts Décoratifs • Paris, France

2021 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Libraries • New York, NY

2021 Poster House • New York, NY

2019 Grassi Museum of Art • Leipzig, Germany

2018 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Libraries • New York, NY

2018 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art • Cedar Rapids, IA

2017 Christian Peterson Museum • Iowa State University, Ames, IA

2016 Long House Reserve • Collection of Jack Lenor Larsen • East Hampton, NY

Scholarships • Awards • Residencies

2025 Intonation 2025 • Residency • Deidesheim, Germany

2015 Vermont Studio Center • Residency • Johnson, VT

2012 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) • Fellowship and Residency • Amherst, VA

2012 BRIC Media Arts • Fellowship • Brooklyn, NY

2012 Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide (SPARC) • Brooklyn Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts Grant • Brooklyn, NY

2011 Ox-Bow • Residency and instructor • Saugatuck, MI

2011 RISD Graduate Studies Grant • Affected Productions • Providence, RI

2010 Graduate Fellowship & Teaching Assistantship • RISD Ceramics • Providence, RI

2010 Funded Proposal • Sitings 2010: Museum as Action • RISD Museum of Art • Providence, RI

Selected Exhibitions

2025 Barely Fair • Chicago, IL • SPOTLIGHT

2024 NADA X Project Art Distribution • New York, NY • A Half Glass Full (Solo Exhibition)

2023 Werk Gallery • St. Petersburg, Fl • Queerness

2022 a space gallery • New York, NY • Under The Big Tops (in Collaboration with John Manion curated by Sam Gassman)

2022 Grassi Museum of Art• Leipzig, Germany • Schmuck + Image

2021 Walter Elwood Museum • Amsterdam, NY • P.A.D. Retrospective

2021 a space gallery • New York, NY • Diamonds, Razors and Champagne

2020 Grassi Museum of Art • Leipzig, Germany • Grassimesse

2020 The Parlour • Frenchtown, NJ • Portraits

2019 Sweet Pass Sculpture Park • Dallas, TX • Away Message

2019 PAD Gallery • New York, NY • On The Lamb

2018 EFA Project Space • New York, NY • Nurtureart Benefit

2018 a space gallery • New York, NY • Fucking Terrible Art Exhibition

2017 BRIC Arts • Brooklyn, NY • Truth

2014 The Emerson • Brooklyn, NY • Masks (Collaboration with Marty Allen)

2014 Katrina Van Tassel Gallery • New York, NY • Digital Skin

2013 Violetscafe • Brooklyn, NY • Fishing in the Dark

2013 a space gallery • Brooklyn, NY • 13|23 Exhibition

2013 Greenville Museum of Art • Greenville, NC • Tongue in Cheek

2012 Ateliers D’Art De France • Paris, FR • The International Film Festival on Clay and Glass: Cup (2010)

2011 Samson Projects • Boston, MA • Chain Letter

2011 RISD Museum of Art • Providence, RIVideo Art Screening: The Cave of Time (2011) • Juried by Judith Tannebaum

2011 Rhode Island Convention Center • Providence, RI • RISD MFA Thesis Exhibition 2011

2011 Gelman Gallery • Providence, RI • Digital Plastic

2010 RISD Museum of Art • Providence, RI • Sitings 2010: Museum as Action, Column

Publications

2022 Milosch, Jane (Masterson, Leopold; Smith, Paul J.; Lenor Larsen, Jack) • Arnoldshe Publishers • Chunghi Choo and Her Students | Contemporary Art and New Forms in Metal

2022 Epple, Sabine and Thormann, GRASSI Museum • Arnoldshe Publishers • Schmuck + Image

2020 Henderson, Aneeka Ayanna • UNC Press • Veil & Vow, Marriage Matters in Contemporary African American Culture

2015 Allen, Marty • Cisco Books • Emojis: The Secret Behind the Smile

2012 BRIC Contemporary Art • July 12, 2012 • The Following of Two Fellows

2011 West, Anne • Moth Press • Mapping the Intelligence of Artistic Work