<i>Newspaper Diary: Trompe l’Oeil Photographs</i><br>By Joanne Leonard

Gallery Opening

Joanne Leonard’s work has always managed to exist in two alternate universes, one intimate, and another vast. Both manage to be deeply relevant to the collective shifts of society.

These new works are what the artist describes as momentary collages, contrasting the historical weight and relative durability of books with the fleeting news images she’s carefully propped up on the book’s open pages. These thoughtfully orchestrated assemblages exist only in real time…performative, here and gone once the books are closed and the clippings put away. Yet, the photographs serve as record to preserve them despite their inherent impermanence.

As a final layer, these large scale trompe-l’oeil prints become objects for the viewer, the datelines and newspaper clippings readable, suggestive of an oversized diary or journal, marking the comings and goings and accumulations over time.