ARTIST STATEMENT
Through a mixture of performance, sculpture, and print media, my work centers the fat queer body as a site of trauma; exploring intersections of healing, access, labor, gender, and sexuality. Occupying the potent space between inward and outward confrontation motivates me to publicly investigate my identity as a means to practice the great unlearning of societal standards, reveal self tenderness, and revel in physical prowess.
Conceptually, I consider my work to be the virtues of my being, my internal dialogue, evidence of my transformation. An accumulation of both physical and emotional labor. Spoken in the language of protest, permission to expand as needed. Printed in the language of poetry, repeating, repeating. Queerness in all its forms, the ultimate relief. I am so close to not even questioning what is and is not enough. I am proving myself to myself: watch me. Perfection in all its forms, the ultimate defeat. I am so close to just being.
My practice is directed by embodied research and the transformative power of simultaneously generating discomfort and curiosity. Moving beyond the traditional print matrix, I employ the body as a matrix through gesture, repetition, and accumulation. Theoretically, I believe video is the most direct and enduring form of print; each frame a monoprint of the one before, layered in succession, available to be repeatedly read. Queering process implicates the viewer, pushing them to consider the rules I am breaking and the access that rebellion can provide both of us. I believe in expanding.
BIO
ev Leto (b. 1982, New Jersey, United States) is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in performance, installation, and print media. Their work is directed by embodied research and conceptually rooted in their identity as a fat, queer, trans nonbinary person. They have exhibited nationally, including the Janet Turner Print Museum, David Krut Gallery New York, Bradbury Art Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art Nashville. ev holds a BFA from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently an MFA candidate in printmaking at the University of Iowa. They have called New Jersey, NYC, Nashville, and now Iowa City home. They often lament about bad bagels. They share a dwelling with their wife and two pups.