PERFECT FAMLILIES
From 2006 to 2010 I focused on a project called Perfect Families, painting portraits of alternative and mixed race families, primarily my friends and neighbors in New York City. I see these real people as archetypes for the contemporary American family at a time when mixed race families, trans-racial adoption and above all, same sex marriage and parenting continue to challenge assumptions about societal norms. My personal experience of life in a conspicuous family, since my younger daughter was born with Down Syndrome in 2003, has been a direct inspiration for this body of artwork.

The most recent paintings on this theme focuses almost exclusively on hands and gestures, to express relationships which transcend the politics of religion, race and gender.

Gwyneth Leech

Gwyneth Leech