Dene Leigh

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Over eight million species share this planet, yet we experience life as a human. Dene Leigh's paintings explore what this means focuses on themes of consciousness, memory, and perception. His practice emerged after witnessing his grandfather suffer a stroke, losing the ability to recognise familiar faces and communicate through language. This experience prompted an ongoing investigation into identity, memory, and the ways we construct our understanding of ourselves and others. Following the loss of his mother, Leigh's inquiry expanded through meditation and the study of spiritual traditions. These experiences continue to inform a practice that embraces mystery and the unseen. His trompe l’oeil paintings draw from found objects, personal tokens, and imagined artifacts arranged in dense, sculptural compositions executed in a style reminiscent of Old Master painting techniques and Surrealist collage. Faces are obscured, fragmented, or cropped, while capturing beings and animals in a state of metamorphosis. Leigh returns to a single question; what does it mean to be alive? His work explores the tension between what we carry from the past and what we choose to let go.

Artwork