Jonathan Goodman: Color is a primary element in Leonardi’s art—who would have thought that it might be used as a structural device, its applications alone the basis of the artist’s strong efforts? In the case of Leonardi, we see an artist in love with the application of paint, specifically acrylic paint, as an act of belief and beauty. The student of theorist and painter, Josef  Albers at Yale, Leonardi comes across as a brilliant employer of color, in both its physical and metaphysical properties. He expresses his primarily abstract themes with a distinct methodology, applying acrylic on glass and then cutting it into strips or small rectangles or triangles of pure paint, collaging them onto the surface of the canvas; the artist’s use of close-to-pure abstraction enables him to treat color as a dedicated exploration—it’s what gives his art the energy it has.

Basel
36 x 36 inches

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