Leigh Anne Lester
Artist Bio

Leigh Anne Lester’s work addresses the place between the genesis of genetic modification and its aftereffects. Her drawings are layers of semi-transparent drafting film with a historical botanical drawn on each layer. The transparency of the drafting film allows the line of each botanical to optically blend with the next layer. Elements of each of the plants mix and tangle their visual attributes intermingling disparate species of flora. Lester is currently working in her studio doing drawings and hand cut drafting film that source from her previous work, seeing them as parent plants that create future generations. For the drawings, the genesis plants are put through a program that distills the imagery into multi-color cells that reference the former plant images. These floating cells are then intermingled visually with a graphite drawing of a separate distorted offspring plant with its color drained, implying a cellular, morphological struggle for resolution. The hand cut drafting film uses the same idea of sourcing from her own work, distorting through computer manipulation and then creating a new vaguely identifiable offspring, quietly installed and sprawled across it’s installation space.

Lester’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States. Her solo exhibitions include the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, grayDUCK Gallery, Austin; Houston Art Alliance; Lawndale Art Center, Houston; McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas; Conduit Gallery, Dallas; Artpace, San Antonio; Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio; Southwest School of Art, San Antonio and the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago. Her works have been featured in shows at the Muriel Guepin Gallery, NYC; Centro Cultural Borders, Mexico City, MX; Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI; Karen Imperial Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Nicholaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY; LIMN Gallery, San Francisco and McNay Museum, San Antonio, TX. She was an artist in residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin Germany. She is the recipient of awards including the 2011 Hunting Prize, 2007 Artist Foundation of San Antonio and a participant of the 2008 Creative Capital, Professional Development Program. Her work is in the permanent collections of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, McNay Art Museum, University of Texas San Antonio.

Lester was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1989 she moved to San Antonio and in 1993 she received her BFA in Painting from University of Texas in San Antonio. Once she graduated she set up studio in the Blue Star Arts Complex and since has co-founded and co-curated the cactus bra SPACE that closed in 2012 after 19 years of operation.