I am a long time fan of Dona Lief. I first encountered her work soon after moving to New Orleans in the mid 90’s. In fact we showed at the same gallery, Marguerite Oestreicher Fine Art. Dona Lief is one of Southern Louisiana’s Visionary Imagists. When viewing her work, there is an immediacy to the subjects and compositions that is instantly engaging, while at the same time there are complex subtexts for continued exploration. This is my kind of art, and I am fortunate to have this gallery as a means to engage with such wonderful work and the artist who created it. I am pleased that Bradley Sumrall and I share this long time appreciation for Dona’s work, and that he has been generous enough to write the following.

-Adam Farrington

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On Dona Lief

After relocating from her native New Mexico to pursue an MFA in painting from Tulane University, Dona Lief emerged as a powerful voice in the New Orleans art scene in the 1980s. Throughout her career, she developed a highly original visual language filled with pop icons, predatory insects, and biting social and environmental commentary.

Lief's association with a group of Louisiana artists – gathered by the curator, gallerist, and artist George Febres around his Galerie Jules LaFourge – catapulted her visibility and energized her studio practice. Designated Visionary Imagists by the legendary art critic D. Eric Bookhardt, the group included Dona Lief, Jacqueline Bishop, Douglas Bourgeois, Andrew Bascle, Charles Blank, Bunny Matthews, and Ann Hornback. The Visionary Imagists brought a regional voice to the contemporary American art dialogue in the wake of Pop Art and the Chicago Imagist movement. Although each artist worked in their distinct figurative style, they were bound together by an energetic palate, surrealist tendencies, a strong sense of place, a narrative impulse filled with humor, and a critical exploration of pop culture, social and environmental issues, and current events.

Although Galerie Jules LaFourge shuttered in 1984, Lief's studio practice blossomed in the 1990s. Her bizarre paintings of figures -- including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Sinead O'Connor, Prince, O.J. Simpson, and Mike Tyson -- morphed with giant bugs in her finely crafted compositions. These works focused on the obscene cult of personality around celebrities, laying bare the absurdity and predatory nature of the media and contemporary society. Her series Icons and Metamorphosis stand as powerful and prescient critiques of American culture.

Dona Lief has continued to produce strong work in painting and collage in her Faubourg Treme studio. Her body of work, which spans almost half a century, stands as a heartfelt celebration of culture and powerful critique of humanity—especially how we treat our most vulnerable communities and the planet that sustains us.

Bradley Sumrall