A solo exhibition with Leslie Jane Roberts
Natural Atlas
Opening Saturday January 24, 2026
7-10pm
Exhibition runs through February 28, 2026
Leslie Jane Roberts makes paintings that translate language into color through self-imposed systems and chance operations. Working with lists of words, plant names, color terms, found text, she assigns each word a specific hue, building grids and patterns that transform linguistic sequences into chromatic experiences.
The paintings operate as both visual compositions and encoded texts, inviting viewers to navigate between reading and seeing. Precise yet playful, Roberts treats constraints as generative tools, where predetermined rules create unexpected harmonies and rhythmic variations of color and form. This group of works lists names of flora, fauna, and geographical places, many compiled while the artist was traveling. Those names are evocative and often colorful: witches’ thimbles, hairy arnica, Cape Disappointment, crow soap.
A Calendar of Common Birds 2024 16 x 12 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Birds of the Great North Woods 2023 24 x 18 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Allium Borage Calendula 2024 16 x 12 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Cape Disapointment 2025 16 x 12 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Hairy Arnica 2024 16 x 12 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on paper mounted on panel enquire
Some New England Birds 2024 12 x 9 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel inquire
BIRDS OF BROOKLYN 2024 12 x 9 inches.jpg
Some Wyoming Birds 2024 16 x 12 inches, acrylic, ink, graphite on paper mounted on panel
Some Wildflowers of Washington State 2025 14 x 11 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel enquire
Birds with Prominent Red 2023 16 x 12 inches, acrylic, ink graphite on paper mounted on panel
Birds with Prominent Yellow 2020 10 x 8 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Birds with Prominent Blue 2023 16 x 12 inches acrylic, ink, graphite on panel
Birds of New York by Color 2019 24 x 18 inches acrylic, ink, graphite, colored pencil on panel
Some Birds that are Largely Blue 2023 12 x 9 inches acrylic, pencil, ink on paper mounted on panel
Bio
Leslie Roberts makes paintings driven by color, language, and self-devised rules. In 2024 she was awarded grants from the Pollock Krasner and Gottlieb Foundations. Her work was included in the Brooklyn Museum’s 2024 bicentennial exhibition of Brooklyn artists, and in Schema, a 2023 survey of diagrammatic art at Marlboro Gallery in NY. She had recent solo shows at Minus Space and 57W57Arts. She has also exhibited at McKenzie Fine Art, Markel Fine Arts, Deanna Evans Projects, Pierogi, and PPOW in New York City; the Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); and the Hafnarborg Museum (Hafnarfjördur, Iceland.)
Her work is in the collections of the Weatherspoon and Hafnarborg museums. Residencies include Yaddo, Ucross, Dora Maar House, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, Monson Arts, and Skowhegan. Her work has been discussed in Artforum and the Brooklyn Rail. Born in North Carolina, Roberts now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BA from Yale and an MFA from Queens College. She is professor emerita at Pratt Institute.