Leonard Harmon - "Quilled / Beaded 4-Point Star Necklace" Mixed Media

This newly created one-of-a-kind necklace was handmade by a recently acquired artist in the TMA Collection, who will be featured in the upcoming TMA Exhibition - Return to Turtle Island: Indigenous Nation-Building in the 18th Century.

"Quilled / Beaded 4-Point Star Necklace" Mixed Media
Porcupine Quills, Charlotte Cut 14k Plated Gold Seed Beads, Charlotte Cut Seed Beads, Smoked Brain Tan Leather.
Style of Quillwork: Zig Zag Stitch.
Year Made: 2024
4-point star often symbolizes the four directions (North, South, East, West), representing balance, harmony, and connection to the natural world.
Tribal Nation: Nanticoke, Lenape.

Leonard D. Harmon
"They say the truth is in the eye of the beholder… but who's looking?" - Leonard Harmon

Leonard Harmon has always been drawn to a life of expression. Leonard credits a large part of his passion to, as he puts it, his "direct bloodline to art". His father was a furniture maker and his uncle, and namesake Leonard Allen Harmon, was a well-known portrait artist featured in the Heard Museum of Arizona. Art, in one form or the other, was always present in his life. As a young man he was inspired by his grandparents love of cooking to attend Johnson & Wales University, one of the finest culinary schools in the country, where he not only learned the fine art of creating culinary masterpieces but also began to explore his love of music. Eventually touring the country as a DJ, it wasn't until around 2010 that Leonard began to explore a new form of expression, traditional and contemporary mixed media.

In an interview with The Stranger, Leonard explains, "I like using older images to tell a new story of putting perspective on our history. As a newer artist, I like exploring all kinds of methods and mediums. Each new style I incorporate helps me express myself in a new way. I'm never scared to try new things and see where my mind takes me." A citizen of the Lenape Tribe of New Jersey and the Nanticoke Tribe of Delaware, Leonard currently lives on the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indian Reservation. He reflects often on traveling to Connecticut and Oklahoma to attend Powwows and be immersed in his culture. He continues to be actively involved in tribal traditions on the Siletz Reservation. This immersion is seen in his work as he takes inspiration from his ancestors to put modern spins on traditional arts.

I come from a long line of people who were creative in their own right. Woodcarvers, furniture makers, beaders and florists. The most well-known is my uncle and namesake, Leonard Allen Harmon, who was a contemporary artist. He has works in the Heard Museum as well as private collections. He's one of the main reasons I got inspired to try my hand at contemporary art.

Contemporary mixed-media artist Leonard D. Harmon explores a wide range of styles and mediums, from traditional native craft to fine art painting. He resides on the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians reservation in Siletz, Oregon. Leonard has cultural pieces in the Camden Historical Society Museum and the Nanticoke Indian Museum, and has had recent shows around the US, including a show last month at Blackfish Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

I have always made art my whole life, but I really got started in 2010-2011. That is when I pushed the hardest to create my art.

My father, Linden Harmon, used to make furniture and put an Indigenous spin on it. All the furniture that he used to create was geometric. He would paint eagle feathers on the top of it. I would watch my dad all the time and my namesake, my Uncle Leonard Harmon, who was a well-known artist. He was known for painting portraits of people on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. His artwork started to get featured in the Heard Museum in Phoenix Arizona - an American Indian art museum. I have that direct bloodline to art.

I attended Johnson & Wales University, which is one of the best culinary schools in the United States. Culinary arts was what I primarily went to school for. I was also involved in the music culture and was a well-known DJ at one time. Before my daughter was born, I traveled around the U.S. playing 45's and worked in a well-known record store in Richmond, Virginia. I was focused on expressing myself through food and music - art wasn't my focus at that time. Watching my parents and grandparents making meals and growing up in a cooking household inspired me to get into cooking.

Leonard Harmon began his contemporary painting career three years ago, but has been expressing himself creatively through the culinary arts, dance, and traditional Native crafts.

In Lenny's first solo show "This One's For You" he is exploring how the lineage of creative expression in its many mediums, of his ancestors feeds into how he creates.

Education
Leonard "Lenny" Harmon comes from a long line of artists and craftsmen, marshaling inspiration from his ancestors and Tribe, but is primarily self-taught. He has always been involved in creative endeavors - celebrating his culture through traditional crafts and dance. Born in 1983 in Philadelphia, PA, growing up in Delaware and Washington, D.C. Leonard was influenced by his Uncle, Leonard A. Harmon - an artist in his own right with paintings in private collections and the Heard Museum - and has developed a contemporary style of mixed media, showcasing a convergence of cultural traditions and contemporary social justice.

Lenny's creativity is diverse, expressed in pow-wow as a Men's Traditional Woodlands style pow-wow dancer in addition to being a member of The Bronx Boys Rocking Crew celebrating break dancing style.

Exhibitions
"Life In The City" Front Street Gallery, Dayton, OH - August 2024
"Walking On Eggshells" Where Waters Meet, Newport Visual Art Center, Newport, OR - June 2024 - July 2024
"Manahahtaanung or New Amsterdam" Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands - May 2024 - November 2024
"Native Visions" Art After Dark. Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH - April 2024
"Guest Artist Spotlight" - Salem On The Edge Gallery, Salem, OR - November 2023
"Indigenous Peoples Day" - 21cMuseum Hotel, Cincinnati, OH - October 2023
"This Ones For You. Honoring Ancestors" - Leonard Harmon Solo Show - Newport Visual Arts Center, Newport, OR - May 2023
"Truth in Three Colors" Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT - April 2023
"Mini Earth Festival" 21c Museum Hotel, Cincinnati, OH - May 2023
Featured artist at "Portal to Native Heritage" sponsored by Porthole Players Theatre Group, Newport, Oregon, November, 2022
"Refuge - Needing, Seeking, Finding Shelter" - 21cMuseum Hotel, Cincinnati, OH, August 2022 - August, 2023
"Land Art Show" - Blackfish Gallery, Portland, Oregon, August, 2022
"Alpha Sacred Beings" - Group X Projects - Philadelphia Naval Yard, Philadelphia, PA, May, 2022
Pine Needle Medallion - Siletz Tribal Arts & Heritage Society (STAHS) - Indigenous Peoples Day, 2022 to present
"Indigenous People's Day" - 21cMuseum Hotel, Cincinnati, OH, October, 2021
Nanticoke Indian Museum, Millsboro, Delaware, 5/29/2018 in perpetuity

Commissions / Curation
Curation: "Where Waters Meet" All Indigenous Show, Newport Visual Art Center - June 2024
Installation (My Ancestors) - Collaboration with Amsterdam Museum - May 2024
4ft x 8ft Painting - Collaboration with Urban Native Collective and Cincinnati Art Museum - April 2024
4ft x 8ft Painting - Collaboration with 21cMuseum Hotel and Urban Native Collective - May 2023
Wampum Belt, Otter Turban, Woodland Tall Bonnet, and Pine Needle Medallion - Camden Historical Society Museum, Camden, New Jersey, 2020 in perpetuity
Porcupine Quilled - Woodland Tall Bonnet - Penn Treaty Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 2023 in perpetuity

Publications and Press
Documentary - Works of Leonard Harmon - filmed in 2023 - Giovanni Sanchez on behalf of Penn Treaty Museum, Instagram -Indigeneyes media
"Looks Through the Veil" - Leonard D. Harmon: www.thestranger.com/visual-art/2022/09/05/78426495/leonard-d-harmon-looks-through-the-veil, the Seattle Stranger Publication
"Glassworks Apprentice" Rowan University Masters of Arts in Writing - Cover Art for Issue Spring 2022 - Glassboro, NJ
"Where They Walk" - Leonard D. Harmon, Cover art for September, 2022 - Portland Mercury Publication
"Indigenous Artistry" - Leonard D. Harmon, 2021, National Park Service: www.nps.gov/articles/000/leonard-harmon.html

Teaching and Speaking Engagements
Native American Heritage Month - KID Museum - Bethesda, MD - November 2023
Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend - Toledo Museum of Art - Toledo, OH - October 2023
Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend - Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian - Indianapolis, IN - October 2023
Healing & Harm Reduction through Art - Harm Reduction Conference - Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, 2021 & 2022
Native Youth Art Class - Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon, September 2022 and November 2022
Indigenous Cultural Revitalization: Rematriation and Preservation. Vera List Center / Parsons School of Design - New York City, NY - May 2023

Affiliations
Member of the Nanticoke and Lenape Tribes of Delaware and New Jersey
The Bronx Boys Rocking Crew - "B Boys" - originators of break dancing in the 1970's in The Bronx, New York, New York


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