Artist Statement

Born and raised in New York City, exposed to the city’s creative blur from birth, Leslie Rubman took her first art class at the age of 43. As a self-taught, mixed media artist she collected materials everywhere she went. The soon-to-be gentrified abandoned factories of Hoboken in the 90s became her haunt, the forgotten detritus of past ages being reborn in her abstract assemblages, her artistic foundation built on the ruins of the recent and remote past.

Ms. Rubman has been inspired by the works of Georgia O’Keeffe and her concept of “filling space in a beautiful way”. Another influence has been Robert Rauschenberg’s use of multiple ideas that “either calmly or less calmly just happen to exist at the same time”. For Ms. Rubman, using found and recycled objects signifies the transformation of history; a past-life experience re-created into a current portrait.

 

Biography

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007 Sovereign Bank, Hoboken, NJ
2005  Full House Printing, Hoboken, NJ.

SELECTED 3 PERSON EXHIBITION

2006  Atrium Gallery, Township of Washington, NJ.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 University of Medicine/Dentistry of NJ, Newark, NJ.
2008 Fall Arts Festival, University of Medicine/Dentistry of NJ, Newark, NJ
2005  Nohu Visions 2005, Park Performing Arts Center, Union City, NJ.
2005  150th Anniversary Citywide Exhibit, Hoboken, NJ.
2005  Griffin Gallery, Madison,NJ.
2004  25th Annual Mountain Art Juried Show, Bernardsville, NJ.
2004  Cathedral Arts Festival, Grace Church Van Vorst, Jersey City, NJ.
2002  Cathedral Arts Festival, Grace Church Van Vorst, Jersey City, NJ.
2000  11th Annual Juried Exhibition (Semi-Finalist), Viridian Artists Inc., New York, NY.
1999  24th Annual New Members Show, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ.
1999  Liquid Gallery,  Hoboken, NJ.
1998  43rd Regional Juried Art Show, Hazelton Art League, Hazelton, PA.
1997  16th Annual MetroShow-Juried Small Works, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ.

GROUP PUBLICATION

Art Calendar Magazine, National Juried Show Centerfold Contest (Winner), Volume 14, No.8, June, 2000.

ART RESIDENCY

1999 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont.

AFFILIATIONS

Hob’art Cooperative Art Gallery, Hoboken, NJ.

ART EDUCATION

1997-1998  Collage and Assemblage, The Art Students League, New York, NY.
1997-1998  The Art of Collage, The 92nd Street YMHA, New York, NY.