Leisa Rich

Leisa Rich was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, but spent most of her adult life living and working in the U.S. and traveling the world. In October 2020, Leisa returned to live permanently in Canada. Her home and studio/gallery is in a 100 year old farmhouse with recent modern additions, on 3+ acres of Old MacDonald's Farm, on Howe Island, on the mighty St. Lawrence River. The island has no retail, no doctors, nothing but cottages and houses, animals and birds, thousands of honking geese in the late fall and early spring, and is accessible only by ferry! It is to nature that Rich turns for much of her subject matter.

Her destiny as a fiber artist began early with a satin trimmed blankie; Leisa had to run the satin through her fingers from one end to the other before she could fall asleep. As a child, she spent years in the hospital due to illness and deafness, dressing her Barbie and Ken in clothes her mother made.

Tactile sensations were there even when sound and humans were not. Leisa is legally deaf.

Rich is a very experimental artist working primarily with fibers and mixed media in 2D, sculptural, and installation formats, and incorporates 3D printing, laser engraving, AI and other unexpected techniques into her textural...

2007 Master of Fine Art- Fibers, College of Visual Arts and Design, The University of North Texas, TX

1993 Bachelor of Education-Art, The University of Western Ontario Faculty of Education, London, Ontario, Canada

1982 Bachelor of Fine Art- Fibers, The University of Michigan Penny W. School of Visual Art, Ann Arbor, MI

1978 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

1975-1978 Interlochen Center for the Arts, graduate '78, Interlochen, MI

2024

Buried Seeds Crack Open In The Dark solo at KSA Window Gallery, Kingston, Ontario

(almost) Colour Less solo at J2 Gallery + Studio, Gananoque, Ontario

"Blossom" at Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto, Ontario

2023

World of Threads, International exhibition, QE Cultural Center, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Safe Zone solo exhibition, MELT Studio & Gallery, Picton, Ontario, Canada

Safekeeping, Gallery 108, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Gentle Disruptions, Union Gallery, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Tenuous Threads, Atlantic Gallery, Chelsea, NYC

unframed, Propeller gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Glenhyrst Biennial Juried Exhibition, Brantford, Ontario, Canada


2022 Selected Exhibitions:

She Packs A Punch, solo exhibition, MAK Gallery, Gananoque, Ontario, Canada

Stantec Architecture, solo exhibition, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (sponsored by DesignTO)

2020 Selected Exhibitions:

Diversionary Antics, CCU Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Conway, South Carolina

Castaways: Art From the Material World, The Robert Bateman Foundation Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia

2019 Selected Exhibitions:

Aftermath: In The Pink, Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia (solo exhibition)

The Saccharine Sublime, Signature Gallery, Atlan...