Shaun Leonardo American, b. 1979

Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly—a diversion program for system-impacted youth at the arts nonprofit Recess, where he is Co-Director—is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment. His work is held in the collections of respected institutions like Bowdoin Museum of Art, KADIST Video Library, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, Portland Museum of Art, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and University of New Hampshire Museum of Art. His studio is based in Brooklyn, NY.