GINA LEON-GUTIÉRREZ was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, raised in Canada, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she works as an actress, visual artist, muralist, and arts educator.
Her early inspiration was drawn from her grandfather - abstract painter, sculptor, and architect, Monty Sack. Her mother, a goldsmith and potter, affected Gina’s interest in ornamental and geometric design, decorative motifs and weathered textures.
Inspired by landscapes, weathered surfaces, her painting is a process of layering elements in which abstract and more literal landscapes are conceived.
Her PAINTING and MURAL work for local businesses is varied: from abstract and impressionist landscapes, images inspired by the masters, to figurative work, city scapes and snippets of historical Vancouver.
As an artist assistant, digital mural artist, and researcher at the Social and Public Art Resource Center, she trained and worked on social justice monuments under the direction of muralist and National Medal of the Arts recipient - Judith F. Baca.
Gina studied Theatre and Art History at the University of Toronto, Visual Art at the College of Art and Design in Sydney, Australia, and Acting at the New School for Drama in NYC. Her paintings and murals have been showcased in Vancouver, New York City (The William Bennett Gallery and The Rockefeller Center), and Los Angeles.
Permanent Collection "Connecting the Dots" at Koerner Pavilion, UBC Hospital
Solo Shows 2023 - Rethinking Imperfection: "Connecting the Dots" - TAG Gallery, Los Angeles 2018 – Studio 202, North Vancouver 2017 – Studio 202, North Vancouver 2016 – PAL Studio Theatre, Vancouver 2016 – Studio 202, North Vancouver 2014 – Solo Show – C.C. Violin Café and Patiserrie, West Vancouver 2014 – PAL Studio Theatre, Vancouver 2013 – InterArt InterArt Theatre, New York 2012 – The Hive, Vancouver
Group Shows 2024 - 'Movement: Dynamism in Gesture"- TAG Gallery, Los Angeles 2023 - New Work Member Showcase - TAG Gallery, Los Angeles 2021 - Living in Layers - Silk Purse 2011 – Glimpse Enigmatic Visions – William Bennett Gallery, New York 2011 – Glimpse Enigmatic Visions – Rockefeller Centre, New York
Murals The Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia Garage at 1954 Bellevue Avenue, West Vancouver Canada Royal Arts High School C.C. Violin Cafe and Patisserie E2 Homes Epic Homes Woking Dragon Chop Suey House - Coquitlam Location Woking Dragon Chop Suey House - Maple Ridge Location Woking Dragon Chop Suey House - Langley Location 4Cats Arts Studio - West Vancouver
Collaborations/ Painting Assistant
2023 The Jeffrey Deitch Gallery
Judith F. Baca, The Great Wall of Los Angeles
2022 The New Mexico Museum of Art - Poetic Justice
Judith F. Baca,"Paletas de La Frontera", 2021. Artist Assistants: Daniel Barajas and Gina Leon
2022 MOLAA Permanent Collection
Judith F. Baca, "Matriarchal Mural: When God Was A Woman" (1980–2021), double-sided triptych: “Thirteen Women in the Volcanic Eruption” (side one), acrylic on wood panels, 8 x 12 feet; collaborators: 2021 Painting Assistants: Martha Ramírez-Oropeza, Gina Leon, 1980s: Julie Ruelas and Yreina Cervantez, plus 10 additional women
2022 UCLA Ackerman Union Building
Judith F. Baca, "UCLA: La Memoria de la Tierra" - The mural is a 9/16” tempered and laminated glass with SentryGlass Plus
Artist’s Assistants: Gina Leon, Daniel Barajas, Josel Cruz, Rebecca Freise, Cristina Girod, and Tania Godoroja Pearse
Connecting the DotsConnection is dynamic. I have connection to self, to “other”, to place and home, to memory, to a dream even, and then just like that, connection shifts, ruptures, gently breaks, and there is something new. I’m curious about this. Connecting the Dots - a series of 100 pieces – began as a triptych. I have a sense that it will be completed at 100 interconnected pieces. When I started this project, I was intent on painting a narrative that says something about connection and memory. I was, I am, interested in the delicate little fibers that bridge together, people, places and things. Sometimes these are the subtle and unspoken transitional moments in life somewhere between memory and self, memory and place, memory and people. Transitions and change are at times really uncomfortable for me. Painting them / including them in the process, flips this somehow. This narrative indicates the passage of time - I see in it, a stylistic shift, process and all its imperfections, and a progression in the narrative. These pieces hang as a unit and they can also be broken up. Whether it's collecting one piece or a cluster of pieces from the series, the collector is immersed in an ongoing narrative, a connected narrative. Some of this collection is housed in the Koerner Pavilion at the University of British Columbia Hospital (Canada). Some of the pieces belong to individual art collectors, family and friends.