Hannah Brenner-Leonard

Living in the largest city in the United States, it’s no wonder I have buildings on the brain. Yet beyond my experiences amid the eccentric urban planning of the Bronx, Brooklyn’s broad diversity and Manhattan’s concrete canyons, the figure of the house has taken on a deeper significance in my work; as a teaching artist, I’ve noticed the omnipresence of the traditional square and triangle icon to designate home, seeing it in use all over the world, from my hometown in upstate New York to Port Elizabeth, Caserta and Brownsville. These factors, combined with an already-acute interest in the concept of home, have resulted in a body of work focused on houses as a recurrent symbol, used to evoke places both real and imagined. In my drawings I use the repetition of a single house - emblematic in some cases, drawn in specific detail in others - to create designs based upon a personal organizational structure. By using repetition in this way, I am able to create work which has a multifaceted sense of meaning and perception, creating playful associations within a map’s rigid lines, changing dramatically whether viewed up close or from a distance. Inspired by the controlled, methodical consistency of Minimalism, this body of work nonetheless...

2010, MS in Art and Design Education, Pratt Institute
2010, BFA in Art and Design Education with Honors, Minor in Art History and Photography, Pratt Institute

2019
Castles in the Sky: Fantasy Architecture in Contemporary Art, Coral Gables Museum, Miami, FL

2018
Castles in the Sky: Fantasy Architecture in Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
Summer Exhibition: Change of State, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY

2017
Home, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY
Priority Mail, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2016
The Path, Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY
Intricate Realities, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY
Adventures in the Border Land: an exploration of geographies through time, space and radiance, Dancewave 182, Brooklyn, NY

2015
Blue Show, Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY

2014
Flow Show, Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY

2013
Looking Forward: An ArtConnectsNY Permanent Exhibition, Safe Haven II, Bronx, NY
"It's a Wrap" Holiday Sale + Show!, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
FIRST FALL 2013 SALON SHOW, Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Pattern/Organic, Dutchess County Arts Council in partnership with the Millbrook Vineyard and Winery, Millbrook NY
Hot Wood Volume VII: Construction/Deconstruction, Hot Wood Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY

2012
Beacon Big Draw, Scenic Hudson River Center, Beacon NY

2011
Group Show,...