Premio Combat Prize

Leo Castañeda (Colombia, b. 1988) is an artist living in New York City. His works combine classical methods of illusionistic image-making with abstraction to create spaces that absorb the viewer. Castañeda then recreates events in his paintings and drawings using mediums such as interactive sculpture, animation and performance, to engage his audience as participators rather than passive observers. Castañeda received his BFA from Cooper Union.
Though they may at first seem like just abstracted landscapes, underlying my works exists a search for mythologies and structures that underlie the human and natural world. Growing up, comics, Japanese animation and computer games fueled my imagery with the same sense of escapism that they entailed, as I spent years drawing the characters and places that were in them. Instilled was the notion of building other worlds and becoming other entities by creating them, an idea that is ancient in the practice of art. Nowadays, I am not separated from this world-building practice but continue to do so through a personal mythology that takes into account art historical and political practices, by combining the language of painting with the structures of comics, video-games and other forms of virtual reality.
EDUCATION
2012-2015 Hunter College, Masters of Fine Arts Candidate, New York, NY
2006-2010, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Bachelors of Fine
Arts, New York, NY
2009 University of Barcelona School of Art, Spring Formal Exchange, Barcelona, Spain
2002-2006 New World School of Arts Magnet High School, Miami, FL
EXHIBITIONS
Solo:
2012 Levels and Bosses, ArtSeen Gallery, Wynwood District, Miami, FL
2011 Drawings, MRKT, Wynwood District, Miami, FL
2011 Stage(s) 2.0, CGAF Gallery, Miami, FL
2011 Stage(s), Flagler Arts Space, Miami, FL
2010 Moments in Level One, The Hall of Great Bosses and The Others, Cooper Union Great Hall Gallery and Great Hall, New York, NY,
2009 Levels Bosses and Items, Cooper Union Sixth Floor lobby, Foundation Building, New York, NY, in collaboration with Victor Ochoa’s Tempomemorial.
Group:
Upcoming: 2013 Open Notions and Broken Boundaries, Invisible Dog Art Center and Recession Art, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Superreal: Alternative Realities in Photography and Video, Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
2013 Transmediation, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery and ARTspace Media Lounge at the College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
2013 Grand Reopening, Recession Art, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Art Cycles Discovers Finalists show, Gallery Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2012 The Quiet Awe of Dwelling, Ferro Strauss Gallery during Miami Art week, Miami, FL
2012 8th Annual Small Works Show, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2012 All about Art, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
2012 Algo Diferént, Weeknights Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Universal, Video program curated by Grela Orihuela. Arte Americas, Miami, FL
2011 Electric Wedding, Wetheat Projects Art Basel exhibition, Miami Beach Cinematheque, Miami, FL
2011 Porque Cazador?, Art Basel Week Exhibition, Flagler Arts Space, Miami, FL
2011 Muralis, Flagler Arts Space, Miami, FL
2011 Priceless, Flagler Arts Space, Miami, FL
2011 Premier Group Show, Flagler Arts Space, Miami, FL
2010 Natural Selection, CGAF Gallery, Miami FL.
2010 Quarterly Art Soiree, Webster Hall, New York, NY
2010 Young Blood: New Wave, ArtSeen Gallery, Wynwood District, Miami, FL
2010 Field of Dreams, A Pavilion Exhibition by the Bruce High Quality Foundation, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
2010 On Alternate Realities, Cooper Union, Room 604, Foundation Building, New York, NY
2010 Walls, Cooper Union, Sixth Floor lobby, Foundation Building, New York, NY
2010 After Party, Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Lil’ Safety, Cooper Union, 1st Floor Lobby, New York, NY
2009 Young Blood New World Mix, Art Seen Gallery, Wynwood District, Miami, FL
2007-10 Cooper Union End of the Year Show, New York, NY
2007 Group exhibit, The Wall-flower Gallery, Miami, FL
2006 NFAA Visual Art Winners Exhibition, Marguilles Collection of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
2006 NFAA Gold and Silver Winners Showcase, Baryshnikov Center for the Arts, New York, NY
2006 Printmaking exhibition, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
2005 Scholastics Art and Writing Regional Student Exhibition, Miami Art Museum
2004-06 Art Basel Exhibition, New World School of the Arts Gallery, Miami, FL
2003-06 Rising Stars, New World School of the Arts Annual Exhibitions, Miami, FL
PUBLICATIONS
2012 El Vestubulo # 8, New York and San Juan Puerto Rico.
2012 Runnaway Parade: An Anthology, New York, NY
2012 Six Years Later Magazine Issue # 2, Surface, Australia
2011 Nobodies Vol 1, Drawmore inc. Collection of stories by independent comic book artists. New York Comic Convention.
AWARDS
2013 Finalist for ArtCycle MFA New York Competition
2011 Port Moody Wearable Art Awards Selection
2010 Art Interview Magazine 21st Competition, Honorable Mention.
2010 Irving and Arlene Tashlick Scholarship at the Cooper Union.
2010 Utrecht Student Art Competition, Grand Prize.
2006 National Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Art (Young Arts) Silver Winner.
2006 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards National Silver Porfolio Finalist
2006 Painting and Printmaking Awards, New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
2005 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Gold Key
2005 Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Scholar
2005 Latino Art Beat, Third Place