Leyva, Jade
Magical Realism Artist Jade Leyva is a painter, potter, photographer and more who hails from Mexico City and now calls New Mexico home. Combining influences from Magical Realism to Pre-Colombian and postmodern, Jade’s work is at times whimsical, celebratory and reflective, yet always thought-provoking and expressive. The central themes of her art – love, unity, and our fragile relationship to Mother Earth – embodies her positive hope for the future of the world.
Besides painting, Leyva’s creative and professional skills extend to photography, digital design, filmmaking, pottery, ancient pottery restoration, music and more. Growing up in a a family of artists, Jade’s artistic techniques and mediums were self-taught as well as learned through her 12 year mentorship with the late artist Bill Freeman, and through courses taken in various art museums in Mexico City.
Jade has been commissioned to create images for many important events and her work has been featured in several books and on the covers of many publications. She has organized and participated in countless collective art exhibits at the local, national and international levels resulting in a growing base of clients collecting her work around the globe. Leyva has a direct connection to collectors following her and most of her paintings are purchased online, at Adelante Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, select pop-up exhibits and, by appointment, out of her studio. Jade also participates annually in the Contemporary Hispanic Market in Santa Fe, which takes place at the end of July, and at other top-tier arts events around the country.
In 2013 Leyva founded an organization called Seeds: A Collective Voice/Community Seed Mural Project which endeavors to raise awareness about ancient seed preservation and to educate environmental sustainability through multimedia arts. Visiting over 100 locations over 3 years, Jade created several murals, entirely with seeds. Thousands of members of the community of New Mexico participated as co-artists. In 2014, Leyva was invited to an International Conference in Chiapas, Mexico to speak about her project and show her artwork. The first ten completed Community Seed Murals came together on display at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, in Albuquerque, NM, in September of 2016. Leyva’s Seeds: A Collective Voice project has involved local, national and international artists from around the world as mural designers. The project continues to grow with a book, educational program for schools, and a documentary, all under Jade’s direction and guidance.
Episode:
New Mexico Painters, Directors, and Historians Tell Stories of The Human Spirit