Carly Leinheiser

I am a painter and textile artist (i.e. obsessive knitter) based in Southern California. Having learned to knit as a child, I spent several years making what I called "unexpected knitted things" including a collection of tiny clothes for taxidermy mice, large scale installations and sculptures. In 2006, I took up painting again, and also moved from Portland to NYC for law school. Law school turns out to be more or less the exact opposite of art school, except that law lectures are the perfect place to knit.
 
In 2009, I stumbled on Figment on Governor's Island and was immediately drawn to this amazing community of artists who help produce free participatory art festivals in public spaces in New York and around the world. Between 2010 and 2015, I exhibited knitted installations and performed original dance and performance art pieces at several Figment events.
 
In 2016, I decided to focus my energy on developing a painting practice. Both painting and knitting bring me into a state of flow, a place where small movements repeated many times over form highly textural layers of paint or yarn, until continued repetition yields a completed work.