VERONICA LETO

artist statement

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My work is unapologetically rebellious, and deeply rooted in my identity as a fat, queer, nonbinary person. Through a mixture of printmaking, performance, and installation, I confront ideologies that preach perfectionism, exclusivity, and shame. My approach is subversive, creating fantasies steeped in reality, so viewers feel empowered by the reclamation of space while also questioning the nature of needing reclamation in the first place. 

 

My printmaking process embodies my otherness. I fully embrace accidents and often design my silkscreens to guarantee that they will happen, because reaction is what drives my ideas forward. I am most interested in the potential to raise visual volume with repetition and the texture of multiples -- less in the function of editioning. I am drawn to visual distortion, evidence of manipulation, and analog textures that are complex, yet unassuming. In my 3D practice, I use paper, clay, and packing tape as a basis -- I like the challenge of taking flimsy materials and making strong objects/statements with them. 

 

Regardless of why, my fat body is captivating, and I consider it the biggest tool in my box.Self documentation deeply informs my practice; it began as a journalistic practice to heal my relationship with my body and continues as a radical research method supporting exploration of my queerness and gender. Discomfort is not the goal of my exposing nature -- in fact it is infuriating that a fat body is so problematic to so many people --  but I embrace the transformative power of discomfort’s inevitability.

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I live outside of Nashville, TN with my wife Lis and our two labradoodles, Kevin Bacon and Indigo Moon. (Unless I am in Iowa City working my way through an MFA in Printmaking or driving the long road between the two.)

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