LELAND WALLIN​

Leland (Lee) Wallin  -  About the Artist

Leland Wallin has exhibited oil paintings in more than thirty US states, more than twenty art museums, and in ten New York City private Manhattan galleries.  Holding BFA and MFA degrees* in painting, he is a twice tenured painting professor, Scholar-Teacher Awards recipient, and Professor Emeritus.  Articles he has written have been published in Arts, American Arts Quarterly and Art International, the latter noted in twelve history books by major art historians.

In New York City, Leland Wallin originated “Child’s Table” still life as his personal tabletop category, featuring complex object groupings observed directly from setups and carefully depicted in vivid oil paint layers brushed onto canvas. Though curator of an early catalogued realist revival survey exhibit with essay, “New Realism ’70,” Wallin distinguishes his paintings from that group of artists by innovating contemporary tabletop themes and metaphors; employing closed-composition arabesque volumes and shadow path movements without using photographic aids, expressionistic brushwork or cropping; combining cross-lighted high-key objects with reflective low-key tabletop color; layering multiple organic objects into underlying geometric strata; and by using detail possibly surpassing an ARTnews critic’s review of his painting as “an almost frightening display of realist virtuosity.”

Reviews and/or reproductions of Leland Wallin’s “Child’s Tables” have appeared in The New York Times by Vivien Raynor; The New York Times by David L. Shirey; The New York Times, The Guide; New York Daily News by Kay Larkin; New Jersey The Sunday Star Ledger by Eileen Watkins; Philadelphia Inquirer by Victoria Donahoe; Scrantonian by Daniel L. Cusick; Raleigh News and Observer by Chuck Twardy; Chicago Sun-Times; Chicago’s The Star; ARTnews by Gerrit Henry; Arts and solo catalog essay by Ralph Pomeroy; The Sciences; Instructor (cover); American Artist, “Realism Today,” juror Janet Fish; Aspects of Representation catalog essay by Robert Godfrey; Asheville Citizen-Times by  Kathleen Duncan; Greenville Museum of art “Child’s Tables” solo catalog essay by Steven May; “New Talent – New York 1979” and “Woman“ catalog essays by Carter Ratcliff; and, as contributor, in the design book Art Elements.

Wallin lectured on realism at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for his solo exhibit “Direct Observation” while living in that area; was lecture-panelist at Rutgers-Newark for “Ten Realist Views“ while living in New York City; lectured on representation at Carnegie-Mellon while residing in Northeastern Pennsylvania where he was MFA Coordinator and F. Lammot Belin Arts Grant Panelist For Northeastern Professionals.  Thereafter Wallin lectured as guest artist at one of the largest Schools of Art & Design in the Southeast, East Carolina University, where he was subsequently hired from among 360 applicants and became co-anchor of the BFA/MFA painting programs.  While there he lectured in Wisconsin as juror/judge for the “Northern National” art competition, including artworks so diverse art critic James Auer singled out the exhibit in the Milwaukee Journal as open-minded.

Recently, Wallin returned to Pennsylvania with his wife, Meredith, who is a vital contributor to the diverse range of his art activities.  He now paints full time and enjoys a distant view of the Appalachian Trail from his studio near the Delaware Water Gap, within commuting distance of New York City.

* MFA University of Cincinnati (with Art Academy), OH; BFA Kansas City Art Institute, MO;

  Freshman study at Columbus College of Art and Design, OH