New York, NY - Katya Leonovich is a talented, visionary, and thought-provoking artist who has made a name for herself in more than one arena, or even country. She began her career as a student of the art academy in Moscow, and today is the owner and often highlight artist in a gallery situated in the Chelsea (NYC) Arts District. She has achieved recognition in three key areas, in fashion design, arts (painter/sculptor) and as an entrepreneur/gallerist. Katya’s innovative designs  have appeared in many global metropolises, both as fashions, paintings, and sculptures.

Katya always wanted to be an artist and uses her gifts to intrigue, incite, and disrupt the viewer rather than simply please the eye. She also evokes emotional responses that range from caring, empathy, compassion, and delicacy to tension, aggression, sadness, toughness, and then unity. She is internationally recognized for her rich legacy of work. In her last two podcasts of the series, she will talk about reactions she hopes to elicit in people through her work.

Katya is also an advocate of human connections and networks with many other women artists. She is a member of NAWA, a National Association of Women Artists and has featured other members of their ranks in her gallery shows. She also believes that COVID was extremely hard on people when they had to isolate and could not easily converse with other humans. That is when she upped the volume of her painting activity and her use of social media. Katya’s Instagram account features many pieces of her art from over the years, and enables people to view, understand,. critique and buy them.

“I have a lot of ideas about what artists need today, I am always looking for something new, maybe a new perspective on women and suffrage or the latest trend in hotel décor. I like to go to art fairs and give back to my community. I started reaching out to others to use art to fight the isolation of COVID.”

Being a painter is an essential part of who Katya is and she decided to open a gallery of her own. After the first two years the location was changed to Chelsea, in a burgeoning area called Artists Row. Here was a space where Katya could easily connect with the right people—customers, collectors, trendsetters, and restauranteurs with a good eye and high class taste. She believes  that SOHO changed, and became more about boutiques and cafes than pure art.

The Leonovich Gallery is an extension of Katya’s entrepreneurial mindset. She has established a contemporary space for the works of accomplished artists with multiple styles and  backgrounds. In March, the gallery was home to I Walk The Line, a display of Katya’s own artwork inspired by country music. It contained paintings of pastoral animals and cowboys in action, as well as sculpted pieces composed of deconstructed instruments from the country genre, such as the iconic guitar.

The current exhibit which began in early April is called Hiragana Split. It features the acrylic paintings of Haruka Papashi and sculpted pieces that complement their flow by Jake Michael Singer.

Haruka Papashi lived and died in her village of Onomichi, Japan, never sharing her work with the public during her lifetime. Her vivid acrylic  pieces came to The Leonovich Gallery through a personal connection to the artist (Katya’s godmother). The works are abstracts based on the syllables of the Japanese language. Papashi both creates and destroys her native language in her art.

Katya says she came to New York at first to visit some relatives, but then she started to have work opportunities. She also fell in love with the city and its diversity of architecture and attractions. She did some of the big fashion shows in Lincoln Center. That was the first significant step in her NYC career. The gallery and the connections it has provided keep Katya here, clearly inspired and growing.



For more information about Katya Leonovich, please visit https://katyaleonovich.com/ and https://leonovichgallery.com/