'Superman' by DJ Leon, 2020. 40 x 27 in. A dye-sublimation print on aluminum that is saturated in colors of reds and blues. The print incorporates, appropriates, and combines found images of superman with commercial memorabilia such as a Superman costume and shoes.
DJ Leon uses a combination of collage, photography, and text to make complex compositions on diverse subjects, from Superheroes, to pop culture, to art history. Each thematic work is an assemblage of crudely cut, found images sourced from Internet browsing, with photographs, proprietary images, and both related and free-associative text.
Born in 1948, DJ Leon graduated from Boston University and spent 38 years on Wall Street before devoting his time exclusively to the photo-based practice in 2009. Although not formally trained, Leon is a longtime avid photography enthusiast and art collector. Over the past decade, his artistic practice developed into multiple forms, from making images with a camera, to combining images into collages, and then altering them into 3D and Lenticular prints. Since 2012, Leon has exhibited his work throughout the United States as well as internationally. Recent exhibitions have included American Embassy, Ankara, Turkey, Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY, Lawrence Cantor Gallery, Los Angeles, Scope Art Fair, Miami, and New York. His work is included in the Superman Museum, in Metropolis, Illinois, as well as in private and corporate collections across the United States. Leon’s beach and lifestyle photography, a separate and distinct body of work, has also gained significant recognition and has been exhibited nationally including at Surf Lodge, Montauk, and Market Art Fair, Bridgehampton.