Leah Cunningham is originally from North Carolina where she studied painting and ceramics at Guilford College in Greensboro. Her early focus was on handbuilt and thrown ceramics including a summer intensive at Penland School of Crafts. She later developed a love for working on large scale and lively acrylic paintings. Leah maintained a studio in Raleigh for many years and showed her work in group shows and other local events around the area. 

 

Leah packed up her easel and moved to the northeast in 1999 and remains enchanted by the local architecture and warm, friendly atmosphere of northern New Jersey. She has recently produced multiple new works, many of them from recognizable places around Montclair and Jersey City. Her work has been shown locally at Sweet Kitchen, Parlor Hair Studio, the Studio Montclair Gallery, and White Rabbit Black Heart.

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"I tell stories through color, reimagining life from a place that’s just a little bit brighter, bolder, and more joyful. An inner world bursting forward where the computer screen recedes and the love affair with pigment begins. If I can spill just a little bit of what I see and feel onto the canvas, then I have succeeded. If you walk away feeling even 1% brighter, I am grateful and I am humbled."