LEILA ROSE FANNER (b.1969)
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leila Rose Fanner is a painter and illustrator.
Born to a South African artist and an African American musician, she was raised in South Africa and currently works from her studio in a small village in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
After graduating from The JHB National School of the Arts Johannesburg, Leila trained in graphic design and water-colour painting, holding her first exhibition in 1993 at the age of 23.
Her current medium is oil and oil pastel on wood and raw linen or canvas. She regularly exhibits in annual group exhibitions, in her home country and internationally.
Her first international exhibition was held in New York at the Harlem Fine Arts Show, 2018 and in Los Angeles with a small solo in the Annex at Band of Vices Gallery, 2021.
She has held 4 solos in her country of residence as a headline artist taking part in Solo Studio’s, an annual fine art event in the Arts Town of Riebeek Kasteel, Western Cape Province, South Africa.
Leila received a Highly Commended award in the UK Rise Art Competition 2018, juried by a panel including UK artists Gavin Turk, Fiona Banner and David Bailey. Leila Rose Fanner’s paintings have featured in The Jealous Curator, Studio Noize Podcast, SA Art Times and Spirituality-Health Magazine among others.
Her upbringing in a family of women has always infused her art with a distinctly feminine perspective. Leila Rose Fanner’s art is held in public and private collections in South Africa, the USA, the
Artist Statement
Vintage markets. Botanical art photography. Fashion. Japanese art movies. Spiritual philosophy. Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s novels. Patterns. They are EVERYWHERE. I’m obsessed with them. The curvilinear era, Art Nouveau, and all its artists; Klimt, Mucha, Mackintosh from the Arts and Crafts Movement, African & European Folk Art. The romantic, stylized artistic expression of that period. Feminine whimsy – boldness in shapes and vivid colours.
“Enthusiasm – c. 1600, from Middle French enthousiasme (16c.) and directly from Late Latin enthusiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos “to be inspired or possessed by God, be rapt, be in ecstasy,” from “divinely inspired, possessed by God” “The dominant focus as I work is the quality of my thoughts and the connection to the refinement of emotion during my creative process. I try to create from a place of inspired action or enthusiasm. The process of art creation can be a deeply cathartic experience and painful thought patterns are often evoked. Dwelling on unpleasant thoughts is weirdly addictive and hard to be aware of and avoid. Solitude also evokes deeply held memories and emotions., therefore, keeping my focus clear, honest and joyful is a discipline similar to meditation. My subject matter is either figurative or abstract representations of the ‘dream or unseen’ world, filled with versions of South African flora and fauna. In a sense, I am painting an altered state, a liminal world between here and the plane of thoughts and dreams”
