Jimmy LeFlore

My background is in contemporary visual art, art administration, and collaborative public art projects involving individual artists and groups. After 20 years developing San Antonio’s public art program, my full-time attention is based in studio art and supporting art advocacy and community-engaged cultural projects through a collective known as Art Field Agency.

I am a native to San Antonio, and have had a journeyman collegiate experience attending UT Austin, San Antonio College, Chautauqua Art Institute, San Antonio Art Institute, and graduating from Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in sculpture. What I gained most from my art education was via the mentoring of exceptional artists during those years, including Mel Casas, Mark Pritchett, Bill FitzGibbons, Leslie Koptchko, Don Kimes, Ed Smith, Dale Eldred, Lester Goldman, among others. My first arts employment was with gallerist Dorothy Katz at her Sol Del Rio Gallery and my wife Joy and our artist friend Bob Bird created our first local exhibit in a converted storage space entitled “Reverie in the Raw”. The three of us started an art service business called Michael & Gello Fine Art Services, primarily creating custom canvases and frames. At the same time I worked off and on as wax/metalworker at Stevens Art Foundry and as a preparator at the Witte Museum. In the mid 90s I was the Program Manager at Blue Start Art Space (now The Contemporary) under the tutelage of curator and author Carla Stellweg. In 2000 I was hired by Felix Padron to work for the City of San Antonio in the Design Enhancement Program of the City Architect’s Office (Public Works). I led the public art program in 2002 when Padron became Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs. Over the next 18 years I developed master plans, developed City Council appointed advisory boards and commissioned hundreds of permanent artworks. Key to my tenure with the City of San Antonio was a focus on mentorships, public participation in public art, and establishing collaborative partnerships to connect the arts throughout the city.

Upon retiring and restarting my personal art practice I have worked with local art galleries to sell paintings and sculpture, and have been selected for several solo exhibitions, including at Lone Star Studios and Dock Space Gallery, both featuring 2D and 3D artwork consisting of intricately cut pieces made of masking tape, cardboard and found materials during COVID. In 2023 I exhibited “INCOGNITO” at Flight Gallery, in which I continued using alternative materials to explore the formality of art and make use of common everyday materials like salvaged burlap, wood scraps, paper bags and packing materials.