Untitled (Sketch for Self-Portrait), c. early 1970s

June Leaf (b. Chicago, 1929; d. New York, 2024) lived and worked in New York City and Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For over seven decades, Leaf explored the human figure, landscape, and mechanical systems in her drawings, paintings, and sculpture.

In her legendary studios, June Leaf worked inventively and agilely with a prolific range of material, juxtaposing and layering each composition and often working simultaneously on paper, on canvas, and with metal.

June Leaf’s work has been exhibited and collected worldwide since 1948 when she was invited to participate in that year’s Annual Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the inaugural Exhibition Momentum organized in response to it by, among others, Leon Golub (b. 1922; d. 2004).

The Mabou Giant, 2022

Forthcoming exhibitions include Shooting from the Heart a retrospective at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy at Andover, MA (Spring 2025), later traveling to the Grey Art Museum, New York (Fall 2025) and the Allen Memorial Art Gallery, Oberlin (Spring 2026).

In Summer 2024, Leaf was included in the group shows Double Threshold at Winter Street Gallery, Edgertown, MA, and Mother Lode: Material and Memory at James Cohan Gallery, New York. Also this year, her work was a part of the city-wide festival (re)FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 festival of the same name.

Visitor, n.d.

Leaf’s work was also recently included in the exhibition Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (September 15, 2024—January 11, 2025); and Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946—1962, the Addison Gallery of American Art (September 3, 2024—January 5, 2025).

Additional recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Ortuzar Projects, New York (2022); June Leaf in Mabou Since 1969 at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts and The Blue Building Gallery, Nova Scotia, curated by Emily Falencki (2022—2023); and My Name is Maryan, an exhibition dedicated to the 20th century artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, curated by Alison Gingeras (2021—2022).

In 2016, Leaf was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Other notable exhibitions include: June Leaf, Museum Tinguely, Basel Switzerland (2004); A Survey of Painting, Sculpture and Works on Paper, 1948—1991, Addison Gallery of American Art (1991); and a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1978).

The Girl with the Hoop, c. 1980

June Leaf’s work is held in private collections — including those of a number of notable contemporary artists — and in permanent public collections including: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy at Andover, MA; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, WI; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, IL; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. Leaf is the recipient of prestigious awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant (1989), a Fulbright Grant (1958), as well as honorary degrees from DePaul University, IL and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. In 2024, Leaf was inducted into membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters honor society.