Diane Leon

A native born, New Yorker. I use color, and collage elements to add textures to my works. Building layers with mixed media on canvas or paper is my visual language. My work and life are about memories and feelings of New York and Spain. The best way to understand my work is that it represents to me,
Nature/Color and A Sense of Place.

Article, February 17, 2024 by Ann Williams on Diane Leon: Abstract and Collage Artist Extraordinaire for The Artworld Post online publication.


Abstract painting and collage gives me a sense of freedom. I prefer to paint on small to mid-size surfaces. The handling of acrylic paint on canvas, panel or paper is influenced by nature’s powerful energy and a sense of place. Color, and the layering of paint, and collage paper, etc. are important elements in my work.
I work with no preconceived idea. How the completed work reveals itself develops with many revisions. I start by an application of color with my palette knife and/or brush. As the paint and texture builds up it forms an abstract composition that gives the painting a life of its own. The work is finished only when it ‘feels’ right to me. It is an emotional rather than intellectual process that determines whether I consider it a ‘successful’ pai...

January 2024, Celebrate 30 years teaching as an adjunct associate professor of arts, SPS, Division of Applied UG Studies at NYU. April 2019, award event celebrating Diane Leon Ferdico, 25 Years of Teaching Studio Art at NYU, SPS, Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies. Art Students League, National Academy of Design,Pratt Graphics Center, and Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, advanced color viscosity printmaking class, NYU, NYC. I have a BA,in art history with honors from SPS, NYU and a MA, NYU, Interdisciplinary Master's program in Humanities and Social Thought.,

Brief highlights:
November 2024, Awarded 2nd Place, Art Room Gallery; "After Dark in New York"
February 2024, two works awarded Merit Award, Greycube Gallery, international juried exhibition
April 2023, Light SpaceTime 14th Annual Abstract juried online exhibition, Special Recognition Award, "Color Flows," and Special Merit Award, "Come Together"
November 30-December 4, 2022, Spectrum Red Dot Miami, 2 artworks on digital display
March 1, 2022, Light,Space and Time, online gallery, abstract international exhibition awarded a Special Merit Award and Honorable Mention Award.
Oct. 16-Nov. 15, 2021, Art Show International Gallery, received Talent Prize Award for "Silence."
Sept. 8, 2021 Bronze Award, "Now is My Bliss," juried abstract show online Camelbackgallery.com
July 19-October 15, 2021 ArisTTable, juried exhibition, Break It Down/Life Abstracted, 5 images included.
March 2021,Light,Space and Time Gallery, received Special Merit Award for "Ancestral Dreams" and "Silence."
December 2020,Gray Cube Gallery, Honorable Mention award for "Urban Flow."
August 2020, Camelback Gallery Abstract International online exhibition, "Finalist Award," for "The Best is Yet to Come."
March 2020, Light, Space and Time online gallery, awarded "Color ...