CV
Leah Sobsey
Represented by Rick Wester Fine Art, NYC
https://www.rickwesterfineart.com
www.leahsobsey.com
ljsobsey@uncg.edu
leah@leahsobsey.com
LEA-studios.com
visualhostorycollaborative.com
Associate Professor of Art
Photography Area Coordinator
Gatewood Gallery Director
The University of North Carolina Greensboro
Exhibitions Solo and Two Persons
2024 *Sachs Museum, Missouri Botanical Gardens, This Earthen Door, St. Louis, MO
2023 *Photofairs NYC with Rick Wester Fine Art Gallery, NYC, This Earthen Door
*GPS, whose eyes I have, with Linda Belans and Adam Sobsey, Greensboro, NC
2022 *Harvard Museum of Natural History, In search of Thoreau’s Flowers; An Exploration of
Change and Loss, Harvard University Through November 2023
2021 *Swarm, exhibition and installation acquired by Duke Raleigh Hospital for permanent
installation, Raleigh, NC
*Southeast Museum of Photography, Tintypes: A Community Portrait, Daytona, FL
*21C Museum Hotel Instagram takeover digital artist check in, April 23rd
2019 *Pink Dog Gallery, Asheville, NC
*Raleigh Convention Center, The Swarm
2018 *Community Foundation of Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, Curated by Elizabeth Harry
(Greenhill Gallery)
*Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO Curated by Hamidah Glasgow
*Tintypes: A Community Portrait, Triangle Community Foundation, Durham, NC
2017 *Praxis Gallery, The Portrait, Minneapolis, MN
*Tintypes A Community Portrait, Anchorlight, Raleigh, NC
*The photography Show, AIPAD, New York, NY
https://www.artsy.net/aipad-2017/browse/artist/leah-sobsey
2016 *Collections, 21C Museum Hotel, Durham, NC
*Collections, Rayko Photo Gallery, San Francisco, CA
*The Accidental Self, Carrack Modern Art, Durham, NC
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 *Forthcoming exhibition, Storm Cloud, Huntington Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
2023 *Frank Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
*8x10 Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
*Unbound12, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA
*UpstART Gallery, Pop Box Gallery, Durham, NC
2022 * 8x10 Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
*Visage: Face with a View, Cassilhaus, curated by Frank Konhaus from the Cassilhaus
collection, Chapel Hill, NC
2021 *Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC curated by Emily Stamey
*Primary Colors, New York Center for Photography, NYC, NY, Ann Jastrab juror
*Branching Out, The Umstead Gallery, Cary, NC curated by Artsuite
*The Committee, Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill, NC
2020 *Threshold, Oneoneone Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
*Winter Blues: Contemporary Cyanotypes, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA,
curated by Ann Jastrab
*The Lawn Sign Project in partnership with For Freedoms, MLK Memorial Park, Raleigh,
NC (postponed due to COVID)
2019 *The Lawn Sign Project in partnership with For Freedoms, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
*Kitab Book festival/exhibition, Delhi, India
*Faculty Biennial, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
*Credit Suisse, New Collections, Raleigh, NC
2018 *Abstraction, Lafayette Gallery and the Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, MA,
curated by Artsuite/Margorie Hodges
* Paula Tognarelli, Griffin Museum of Photography
*Swarm, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, VA, curated by Meggin Hicklin
*Across County Lines, Contemporary Photography from the Piedmont, The Nasher
Museum of Art,
Durham, NC, curated by Marshall Price
*Anti-Nostalgia, The Carrack Modern Art, Durham, NC, curated by Elin O’Hara Slavick
*The Fence Project, Public Art Installation, Durham North Carolina
*The Wild, Bloc2, Raleigh NC Curated by Stacy Bloom Rexrode
Collaborations
2023- This Earthen Door, a collaborative photographic project about Emily Dickinson and her
herbarium/garden with artist Amanda Marchand. Working on a book and museum installation.
2020-2022
*LEA Wearable Art Project, with Collaborators Emily Meinke and Ann Schroth
*Ongoing- Harvard Museum of Natural History, Thoreau’s Woods, Harvard University
with Emily Meineke, Harvard researcher, Marsha Gordon, film-maker, Robin Vuchnich,
graphic designer
2019 Ongoing-For Freedoms Project, created by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, For
Freedoms is an artist-run platform for civic engagement, discourse, and direct action for artists
in the United States.
2017 *Click! Photography Festival PIC grant award with Tim Telkamp, created tintypes in a
mobile unit to bring community together.
Monographs/Publications
THIS EARTHEN DOOR, WITH AMANDA MARCHAND, DATZ BOOKS 2024
NEST, TERMS OF SURRENDER, HIS GOLDEN MESSENGER CD COVER, COVER ART FOR INTERNATIONALLY
DISTRIBUTED CD, 2019
COLLECTIONS, THE ROYAL SOCIETY PUBLISHING, BIOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING
BIODIVERSITY IN THE ANTHROPOCENE, VOLUME 374, ISSUE 1763, LONDON, UK, NOVEMBER 19, 2018
COLLECTIONS, LEAH SOBSEY. DAYLIGHT BOOKS, 2016, 128-PAGE MONOGRAPH OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND
INSTALLATIONS CREATED FROM SPECIMENS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF THE US NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MUSEUMS, NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES, AND NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
INSECT MUSEUM
BULL CITY SUMMER, DAYLIGHT BOOKS, 2014, COLLABORATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING PROJECT
DOCUMENTING A SEASON AT THE DURHAM BULLS ATHLETIC PARK. ARTISTS INCLUDE: ALEX HARRIS, FRANK
HUNTER, KATE JOYCE, ELIZABETH MATHESON, ALEC SOTH, HIROSHI WATANABE, JEFF WHETSTONE, AND HANK
WILLIS THOMAS
International Press
Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 2023
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunstmarkt/the-armory-show-in-new-york-hier-wird-
geschichte-fortgeschrieben-19160847.html
Amateur Photographer, July 15th, 2016
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/technique/interviews/leah-sobsey-capturing-collections-
americas-national-parks-80022
Fisheye, no. 6, May 14, 2014, pp. 8-9, 33-34
https://issuu.com/fisheye-magazine/docs/fisheye6-issuu
L’oeil de la photographie, April 14, 2014
http://www.loeildelaphotographie.com/en/2014/04/14/article/24657/bull-city-summer-a-season-
at-the-ball-park/
National Press
Artnews, September 2023, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/interview-photofairs-
founder-scott-gray-1234678515/
Fine Books and Collections Magazine, Autumn 2023
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/autumn-2023
White Hot Magazine, September 2023, https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/triumphant-
debut-in-new-york/5963
NC Literary Review, 2023
The Boston Globe, June 2022
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/29/arts/search-thoreaus-flowers-examines-famous-
author-citizen-scientist/
Harvard Gazette, May 24 th , 2022
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/05/thoreau-floral-collection-inspires-new-
exhibition/
Duke Raleigh Hospital, August 16, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4TQQxJL6j0
Duke Forest journal, September 13, 2021
https://dukeforest.duke.edu/2021/09/13/artist-leah-sobsey-finds-inspiration-and-creates-
natural-history-in-the-forest/
Walter Magazine, Branching Out, June, 2021
Don’t Take Pictures, March 25, 2020
https://www.donttakepictures.com/
Lenscratch, March 14, 2020
http://lenscratch.com/2020/03/winter-blues-contemporary-cyanotypes-at-the-center-for-
photographic-art/
Carmel Pine Cone, March 13, 2020
http://pineconearchive.fileburstcdn.com/200313PCA.pdf
The Phoblographer, October 23, 2018,
https://www.thephoblographer.com/2018/10/23/leah-sobsey-and-tim-telkamp-on-creating-
tintype-community-portraits/
The Roanoke Star, October 18, 2018
http://theroanokestar.com/2018/10/17/from-insects-to-birds-planes-to-drones-swarms-are-the-
subject-of-moss-arts-centers-newest-exhibitions/
Virginia Tech Daily, October 15, 2018
https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2018/10/mac-
swarmexhibition.html?fbclid=IwAR0fmT8B8dmQYCTvNfcipIOvp5eA_k-oJ3fWaoLk-
29mqXsNKr8PEcji9b8
Lenscratch, November, 17, 2017
http://lenscratch.com/2017/11/leah-sobsey-the-states-project-north-carolina/
The Carolinian, October 4, 2017
https://carolinianuncg.com/2017/10/04/professor-spotlight-leah-sobsey/
Audubon, August 3, 2016
http://www.audubon.org/news/why-national-parks-are-actually-secret-museums
Crave Online, August 21, 2016
http://www.craveonline.com/art/1022853-photographer-leah-sob- sey-discovers-life-death
Slate.com, September 16, 2016
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2016/09/16/leah_sobsey_photographs_the_collections_of_n
ational_park_museums_in_her.html
All about Photo.com, January 10, 2016
http://www.all-about-photo.com/article.php?title=leah-sobsey&id=147
Art Fix Daily, March 29, 2016 http://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/6986-leah-sobsey-
photographs-collections-of-americas-national-park-mus
Hyperallergic, July 13, 2016 http://hyperallergic.com/304776/photographs-of-the-birds-and-
bones-in-us-national-park-collections/
Musee Magazine, June 16, 2016 http://museemagazine.com/culture/2016/6/16/book-review-
leah-sobsey-collections-birds-bones-and-butterflies
PDN blog, March 22, 2016
http://potd.pdnonline.com/2016/03/37427/
Daylight Publishing, July 2016
http://stories.daylight.co/leah-sobsey-collections/
Mandatory Magazine, August 21, 2016 by Miss Rosen, https://www.waltermagazine.com/art-
and-culture/striking-bull-city-summer-comes-to-raleigh/
Photo Booth (blog), New Yorker, August 13, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-
booth/sam-stephensons-bull-city-summer
Mother Jones, August 31, 2014, http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/08/bull-city-summer-
minor-league-baseball
Slate.com, March 4, 2014
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/03/04/bull_city_summer_documents_a_season_at_the
_ballpark_with_the_durham_bulls.html
Paris Review Daily (blog), Paris Review, July 24, 2013,
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/07/24/when-winning-is-everything/
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/tag/leah-sobsey/
Television, Radio & Podcast
Sample-Studios Podcast, Shadow Forests Exhibition - Deep Time, Climate Change
and the Life and Death of Forests, Cork Ireland,https://sample-studios-
podcast.zencast.website/episodes/shadow-forests-exhibition-deep-time-climate-change-and-
the-life-and-death-of-forests
HARVARD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, IN SEARCH OF THOREAU’S FLOWERS: AN ART + SCIENCE
CONVERSATION WITH BIOLOGIST EMILY MEINEKE & ARTISTS ROBIN VUCHNICH & LEAH SOBESY
HTTPS://HMSC.HARVARD.EDU/THOREAUS-FLOWERS-ART-SCIENCE
THE CHRIS OR JENNY SHOW, 2021,
THE WISE FOOL PODCAST, 2020
Residencies
2024 Winter Residency, Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2023 Winter Residency, Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2022 Ayatana’s Biophilium, Virtual Residency, Quebec, Canada
VCCA, Amherst, VA
Mother’s Milk, Newton, KS
Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2021 Dumbarton Oaks Virtual Plant Humanities Residency, A Harvard affiliate, Washington,
DC
VCCA, Amherst, VA
Mother’s Milk, Newton, KS (postponed to summer 2022 due to Covid)
Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2020 Hambidge Center for Art and Science, Rabun GA
Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2019 Hambidge Center for Art and Science, Rabun GA
Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
2018 Hewnoaks Artist residency with stipend, Lovell, Maine
Awards & Grants
2022 UNCG CVPA Dean’s Research/Creative Initiative Funds Award
UNCG URSCO Funding for CVPA Pollinator Garden/Lab/Eco Research
2021 UNCG Faculty First Award
UNCG CVPA Dean’s Research/Creative Initiative Funds Award
Nominated for University Research Excellence Award
2020 UNCG Early Career Undergraduate Research Mentor College of Visual and Performing
Arts.
UNCG CVPA Dean’s Research/Creative Initiative Funds Award
2019 Melon Fund Award
UNCG CVPA Dean’s Research/Creative Initiative Funds Award
2018 UNC-Greensboro Diversity Initiatives Grant, Greensboro, NC
Kohler Award, UNC-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
Globally Engaged Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award, UNC-Greensboro,
Greensboro, NC
UNC-Greensboro Dean’s Research/Creative Initiative Funds Award, Greensboro, NC
Triangle Community jury award with honoraria, Durham, NC
Society for Photographic Education Conference presenter, Penland, NC
UNCG New Faculty Research Grant, Greensboro, NC
CVPA Diversity Initiatives Mini-Grant, Greensboro, NC
Gallery Director and Curator, University of North Carolina Greensboro Gatewood Gallery
____________________________________________________________________________
2023 Curator, Dawn Surratt, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Curator, William Paul Thomas, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina
Greensboro
2022 Curator, Kennedi Carter, Horace Williams Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
Curator, Donté Hayes, Falk Visiting Artist, Gatewood Gallery, University of North
Carolina Greensboro
Curator, Jim Lee, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Curator, Adam Carlin, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
2021 Curator, Kennedi Carter, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Curator, Anthony Patterson, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina
Greensboro
Curator, Mark Dixon, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Curator, Fem/Fauna, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Curator, Andrew Havenhand, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina
Greensboro
Juror/Panelist/Curator/Book Signings/Conferences, Artist talks
2023 Dumbarton Oaks, invited to participate in conference and create special edition of the
Harvard Arnold Arboretum Arnoldia Magazine on issues related to climate change and
species loss, Georgetown, DC, and Oak Springs, VA, March and September, 2023
Ayatana’s Biophilium, Virtual artist talk, Quebec, Canada, September
Duke University Fuqua School, Cyanotype Workshop, September
EDIS Conference (Emily Dickinson International Symposium) Amherst, MA, July 2023
with Amanda Marchand, Marta McDowell and Peter Grima
The Society for Textual Scholarship Conference, Artist talk, The New School, NYC,
June 2023 with Amanda Marchand, Marta Werner and Jen Bervin
St Botolph, Artist talk, Boston, MA, May 2023
Medium Photography Festival, Artist talk, San Diego State University, April, 2023
SPESE Conference, Portfolio review and presenter, East Carolina University, April,
2023
The Nasher Museum of Art, The Spirit of the Land at Duke Gardens, Duke
University, leading a community cyanotype workshop, March 2023
2022 Harvard University Museum of Natural History, Artist presentation/panel discussion,
November 2022
Duke University, Artist presentation, October 2022
Portfolio Reviewer, Click Photography Festival, October
Photo Alliance Eco Symposium, San Francisco, video presentation, This Earthen
Door, https://www.photoalliance.org/2022-eco-art
Harvard University, Artist presentation, April 2022
East Carolina University, Artist talk, April 2022
2021 Juror, NC Arts Council, Eastern NC Artist Support Grant, reviewed work by over 100
artists for the 10,000.
Virginia Military Institute, Artist talk, Lexington, VA
Washington and Lee University, Artist talk, Cyanotype lecture, May 2021
Click Photography Festival, International review, Portfolio Reviewer,
Curator, Heather Evans Smith exhibition, Horace Williams House, October 2021
2020 Artist talk, The Center for Photographic Art, Online due to Covid, Carmel, CA
Portfolio Reviewer, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC (rescheduled due to
Covid-19)
2019 Curator, For Freedoms exhibition, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Curator, PhotoIreland Photography Festival, The Library Project, Dublin, Ireland
Curator, Growing Together, Marthana Yater, exhibition at the Horace Williams Gallery,
Chapel Hill, NC
2018 Curator, Titus Brooks Heagins, exhibition at the Horace Williams Gallery, Chapel Hill
Artist talk Click Photography Festival, Durham, NC
Artist talk, The Fence, Durham, NC
Conference presenter, Society for Photographic Education, Penland, NC
Curator, Jim Lee exhibition, Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill, NC
Artist talk, The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Artist talk, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, VA,
Curator, GPS, 485 Exhibition, Greensboro, NC
Curator, For Freedoms exhibition, Greensboro, NC
2017 Curator *GPS, 485 Exhibition, Greensboro, NC
Curator, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Gatewood Gallery
Artist talk The Fence, Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC
Artist talk The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Juror, Durham Arts Council Emerging artists Grant, Durham, NC
Conference presenter, Collections, at the Unleashing and confronting stories Of
Bildung: Remediations of cultural-natural heritage, University of Copenhagen, December
4-5, 2017
Artist talk/Book signing, Association of International Photography Art Dealers, NYC
Commissions/Public Art
2020 For Freedoms Lawn Sign Project, MLK Memorial Gardens, Raleigh, NC (rescheduled
due to Covid)
2019 For Freedoms Lawn Sign Project, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
The Raleigh Convention Center-City of Raleigh, The Swarm 2013-14 Bull City Summer,
Durham, NC
2011-16 Rose Community Foundation, Visual History Project, with Lynn Bregman Blass,
Denver, CO
Habitat for Humanity Durham 25th anniversary, with Lynn Bregman Blass
Selected Public and Private Collections
Duke Raleigh Hospital, North Carolina Museum of Art, City of Raleigh-Convention Center,
Credit Suisse, Cassilhaus Collection, Duke University Hospital, Durham, Fidelity Investments,
Rose Community Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Durham, NC, Town of Chapel Hill. Bill
Gates- Microsoft Collection, Maine Photographic Workshops, Rockport College Collection, San
Francisco Art Institute, Duke University Medical Archives, Grand Canyon National Park.
Education
MFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
BA, Anthropology; Minor, Studio Art, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC