Born:               1938, East Orange, New Jersey
Education:       Antioch College, Los Angeles, BA and MA
University of New Mexico, Alburquerque, NM ,MA/MFA
Currently lives and works in Alburquerque, NM

Marietta Patricia Leis, born 1938 in East Orange, New Jersey, is a visual artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico by route of New York City and Los Angeles. She works in several media including painting, photography, sculpture and video. Leis received a BA and MA in psychology from Antioch College, Los Angeles and her MA/MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Leis’ art is concerned with the preservation of our planet. Her art, regardless of medium, resonates with the beauty of our natural environment. ‘Color of place’ is an element that she enlists to create a visceral recording of her travels. As travel informs her work Leis has been awarded numerous artist residencies nationally and internationally including Connamara Conservancy, Dallas; Weir Farm Trust, CT; Schneider Museum/Crater Lake, OR; Gullkistan Center for Creativity, Iceland; Ionian Center for Arts and Culture, Greece; Fundacion Valpariso, Mojacar, Spain; Cawdor Estate, Cawdor, Scotland; Spring Island, and Pritchard’s Island, SC; Footsteps to Creativity, Portugal; Morris Graves Foundation, Loleta, CA. Leis has received grants from Artist Space, NYC and The E.D. Foundation, NJ.

Leis’ work has been exhibited internationally at the Mark Rothko Art Center, Latvia; European Cultural Centre at the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; Contemporary Art Museum, Ahvaz, Iran; Suwan Arts Center, South Korea; Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco; United States Embassy, Namibia, among many other venues.  Her work has also been exhibited widely in the US, including at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, Maryland; CUE Art Foundation, New York; Long Island Museum, New York; Morris Museum, New Jersey; The Clymer Museum, Ellensburg, Washington; Palm Springs Desert Museum, California; Holter Museum, Helena, Montana; Harwood Museum, New Mexico; Islip Art Museum, Long Island; Michael Warren Contemporary, Denver and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO.

Leis’ work can be found in many public collections: Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco; The Albuquerque Art Museum, NM; Harwood Museum, Taos, NM; University Art Gallery, NM State University, Las Cruces; New Mexico State Library, Santa Fe; the Holtze Hotel, Denver; Ross Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio and the State Capitol Building, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work in the public sector includes commissioned work and 1% for the Arts competitions.

Peter Frank, art critic for the Huffington Post quotes the late New York Times Art Critic, William Zimmer, who noted that Leis’ paintings follow in the “abstract sublime” tradition of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, and called Leis’ reductive paintings “sublime”. In regard to her own creatiave philosophy Leis states, “The aim of my art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

Leis’ extensive exhibition record, public collections, awards and lectures are documented in Who’s Who In American Art (31st Edition).