Leon Nicholas Kalas

Brooklyn, New York , NY, United States

About Leon Nicholas Kalas

Painting to me is a life force not a career.My work consists mostly of figurative and portraiture paintings, however, I do experiment in various art movements; pure abstract, abstract expressionism, minimalism, symbolism, and conceptualism. All art movements interest me. I have studied portraiture and human anatomy at the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). My work has been exhibited extensively in New York and Maryland galleries, and in June of 2005 one of my paintings was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On May of 2011 I was exhibited in Cuba at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture. My work is collected throughout the United States, Europe, Morocco, Canada, and the Caribbean. My work is also in the Library of Congress, the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR, the Ministry of Culture in Bucharest, Romania, the Museul de Art in Cluz-Napoca, Romania, Royal Collection of Morocco, and the Royal Collection of HRH King of Greece . I have been published in NYArt Magazine, Boheme Magazine, Paris, France, Brooklyn Fine Art Magazine, and various newspapers such as Caribbean News, The Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Currier. I have participated in art Symposiums in Morocco ,Romania, Haiti, Cuba, Paris France, and Georgia. Important portraits that I have painted are for actors Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, fashion designer Valentino Garavani, US Senator Roland Borris, His Majesty, Mohammed VI King of Morocco, HRH King Constantine of Greece, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Harry Belafonte, and Ultra Violet ( Andy Warhol's Superstar.)

Education:

I have studied portraiture and human anatomy at the New York Academy of art,the Art Students League of New York and FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) I have been exhibited in New York, and Baltimore, Maryland Galleries. My work is in the permanent collection of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AK, USA. Also my work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in June of 2005, and has been published in Boheme magazine online, in Paris France. NYArt, Magazine, and Brooklyn Fine Art Magazine. I have participated in cultural exchange programs in Morocco,Romania and Cuba.

Events:

Future Shows: As a result of my visit to Morocco in May of 2009, I have painted a series of portraits; oil on canvas, of his Majesty, Mohammed VI King of Morocco and through Ministry of Culture in Rabat there could be an exhibit of these portraits in Morocco in 2010.