Leigh Suggs (b. 1981, Boone, NC) is a Richmond-based artist whose practice exists at the intersection of craft, painting, and sculpture, engaging with the themes of perception, ambiguity, and transformation. Her intricate works, created through a process of drawing, painting, and hand-cutting, transform the modernist grid into a site of tension and exploration, oscillating between positive and negative space, structure and fragility. Suggs’ process is deeply tactile and methodical, combining layers of painted paper with painstaking cuts that evoke woven textiles or radial webs. These patterns mutate and evolve, engaging with light, shadow, and reflection to create works that shift and transform with the viewer’s perspective. Rooted in the tradition of process-driven, labor-intensive craft, Suggs reimagines the grid as a flexible and ambiguous framework, asking viewers to remain active participants in their experience of the work.
Suggs’ work is held in prominent public and corporate collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and Deutsche Bank. She has exhibited widely across the United States, with solo and group exhibitions at venues such as the Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), Massey Klein (New York, NY), Abigail Oglivy (Los Angeles, CA), and Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA). Through her explorations of material and process, Suggs creates works that act as meditations on endurance, fragility, and the risks of desensitization in an overstimulated world. Her practice invites viewers to engage deeply with the interplay of structure, pattern, and perception, offering a reflective space to consider their own relationship to form and the act of looking.
Selected CV
Education
2015 MFA Virginia Commonwealth University – Richmond, VA
2003 BFA University of North Carolina-CH - Chapel Hill, NC
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2026 New Work, Two person show, Main Projects, Richmond, VA (expected)
2025 Many Small Cuts, Two person show, Abigail Ogilvy, Los Angeles, CA
2024 Best, In Pieces, Solo Show, Cole Pratt, New Orleans, LA
2022 Bent Out of Shape, Solo Show, Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY
2022 In Conversation, Two-Person Show, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2021 Pushing Edges & Rounding Corners, Solo Show, Cole Pratt Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2021 Keep Coming Round, Solo Show, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA
2021 Hurry Slowly, Solo Show, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
2020 TOAST, Solo Show, Massey Klein Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Secure Concurrence, Two-Person Show, Online
2019 No One Ever Makes a Promise in a Dream, Solo Show, OneOneOne Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
2018 This or That is Here, or There, Solo Show, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA
2017 Hyperactive, Two-Person Show, ArtSpace, Raleigh, NC
2016 Reflection as a Shadow, Solo Show, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, MN
2016 Conversation | Unspoken Language, Two Person Show, Penland Gallery, Penland, NC
2016 Double Vision, Solo Show, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Abstract, Main Projects, Richmond, VA (expected)
2025 Lovers, Main Projects, Richmond, VA
2025 Game Time, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2024 Dallas Art Fair, Massey Klein Gallery, Dallas, TX
2024 Works on Paper, Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, NC
2024 Pulp & Bind, Southeastern Survey of Paper Art, Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, NC
2023 Deep Parts, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA
2022 Coming Home, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA
2022 Coined in the South, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
2022 Nothing Goes to Waste, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX
2021 Homeward Bound (2nd Place) Juried by Nandini Makrandi, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA
2021 BAM – Art in the Yard, Group Show curated by Brooke Molinaroli, Larchmont, NY
2020 DRAWN, Group show, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
2020 Finding Meaning, Group Show, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
2019 Fiber International, Group Show – juried by Sonya Clark & Jane Sauer, Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh PA
2018 I><YOU><WE, Three person Show – curated by Lauren Ross, Visual Art Center, Richmond, VA
2018 Paper Planes, Four person show, Longwood University, Farmville, VA
2018 Ties That Bind, Group Show, Fowler-Kellogg Art Center at the Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY
2017 Paper Makers, LIGHT Art + Design, Chapel Hill, NC
2017 Paper Works, Fort Works Art, Fort Worth, TX
2017 Homeward Bound Juried by Bradley Sumrall, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA
2016 REDUCE, Blue Spiral, Asheville, NC
2016 Go For Baroque, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
2016 Repeat, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
Selected Corporate & Public Collections
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Weatherspoon Art Museum
Capital One Corporate Collection
Deutsche Bank Corporate Collection
Dimensional Funds Corporate Collection
Dominion Corporate Collection
Fidelity Investments Corporate Collection
Google, Austin TX
Honeywell Corporate Collection
Markel Corporate Collection
Roanoke College
Truist Bank / Suntrust Bank Corporate Collection
TIAA Corporate Collection
Wells Fargo Corporate Collection