B. 1953, Landstuhl, Germany
Leslie Wayne was born in Germany and grew up in Los Angeles. Following two years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a year in Paris and five years in Israel, she moved to New York in 1982 and transferred to Parsons School of Design where she earned her BFA in Sculpture with Honors.
Largely informed by her identification with the light, colors and tactile sensibilities of the West Coast, Wayne’s work intersects painting, sculpture, abstraction, and representation to create a direct and intimate experience of the world around her.
Wayne has exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad, and has received grants from the Francis J. Greenburger Award (2026), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2018, 2006), the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2017), the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2012), the Buhl Foundation (2004), the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (1994), and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1985). Her work can be found in the public collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris; the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum Smithsonian Library, New York City; and more.
Wayne has been represented by Jack Shainman Gallery since 1989 and lives and works in New York City.