ArtBreak: Virtual Artist’s Talk with Leslie Barlow

During this virtual ArtBreak, learn about visual artist Leslie Barlow, whose painting Atquezali, At Indigenous Roots is featured in the ongoing KIA exhibition Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century. Barlow’s colorful, life-size oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations into the ways in which race entangles the intimate spheres of love, family, and friendship. For Barlow, art and art making are both healing and liberatory through the power of representation, witnessing, and storytelling.

Barlow received her BFA in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and her MFA in 2016 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In 2021, she was awarded the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and in 2019 she was awarded both the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship and the 20/20 Springboard Fellowship. Collaboration is integral to Barlow’s studio practice. She leads the Public Functionary Studio Program for emerging artists, and she worked with other organizers and artists to develop the MidWest Mixed Conference, which then grew into the organization MidWest Mosaic. In response to the murder of George Floyed, she helped start the collective Creatives after Curfew. She is also the founder and producer of ConFluence, providing a space for BIPOC art and science fiction lovers to come together.

Virtual events will go live on our YouTube page on the indicated dates and times. They can be found under the “Live” tab. Recordings of select past events are available on YouTube as well. Unless otherwise indicated, no registration is necessary.