Sarah Leiva is an interdisciplinary artist and designer from Miami, Florida. Currently residing in Baltimore, she has found herself working with costume design, sculpture, performance, and arts education.
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WORK EXPERIENCE
Costume Fabricator → Truepenny Projects, Baltimore, May-August 2023
Arts Educator → Jubilee Arts, Baltimore, October 2021-February 2023
Intern Curator → Black Artist Research Space, Baltimore, January 2021-June 2021, February 2022-June 2022
Fundraiser!
Fundraiser!
Graphic design by Ujjaini Gurram and Fio Zhang
Over the past several years, legislation targeting the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ people have gotten increasingly more aggressive. Queer people in South Florida have become the targets of bills that infringe on their right to exist. Every time a piece of jewelry or a garment from my collection Fruiting Bodies is purchased, 70% of the proceeds will be donated to an LGBTQ+ resource or program in South Florida. As a member of this beautiful community, I thank you for your purchase!
To acquire a piece of handmade jewelry, please send an email to sarahlucialeiva@gmail.com with details of what you wish to purchase, as well as desired delivery methods.
Bleeding Heart
Pewter cast charm, steel wire, steel chain.
Price is on a sliding scale of $60-$70 USD.
Chrysalis
Pewter cast charm, steel wire, steel chain.
Price is on a sliding scale of $60-$70 USD.
Exoskeleton
Pewter cast charm, steel wire, steel chain.
Price is on a sliding scale of $60-$70 USD.
Mountains & Hills
Pewter cast charm, steel wire, steel chain.
Price is on a sliding scale of $60-$70 USD.
Spiky Seed Pod
Pewter cast charm, steel wire, steel chain.
Price is on a sliding scale of $60-$70 USD.
Awards
Baltimore Jewelry Center Winter 2024 Scholarship (Spring 2024)
Interdisciplinary Sculpture Departmental Recognition Award at MICA (Spring 2022 & 2023)
Creative Vision Award Scholarship Recipient to MICA (2020-2024)
YoungArts Honorable Mention in Design (Spring 2020)
Designer Featured in Miami Fashion Week (Summer 2019)
De La Cruz & Knight Foundation Scholarship to Parsons School of Design’s New York Summer Intensive (Spring 2019)
Portfolio
Materiality is the lens through which I understand the world. From lambskin and metal to water and the body, I find a sense of catharsis in forming methods of creation and transformation. Found objects and their histories are also a catalyst through which feelings of desire, nostalgia, discomfort, love, and labor are communicated. My practice is sculpture-based and performance-informed, allowing these two mediums to blend into one another. In this process, I use scale, malleability, and weight to find points of contact and tension between materials, objects, and bodies. Through my work I ask myself and viewers alike to hold all that they can at once, to grasp and buckle, to twist and sink, to stand and be gentle and violent all in the same breath.
Fruiting Bodies
Photography by Mathilde Mujanayi (@mujanayiismyname on Instagram). Heat patina on sheet steel, animal leather, kombucha leather, and naturally dyed fabric.
2023
On The Harbor
In collaboration with Madeline Diaz (@easytolovve on Instagram). Photography by Andrew Wies (@andrejameswies on Instagram). Garments, sets, and choreography.
2023
Breastfeeding
Performance still and detail shot. Kombucha leather and cow’s milk.
2023
Celestial Flirtations
Steel rod, animal hide, kombucha leather, and tin pewter casts. 4 ft X 4 ft X 15 ft.
2023
Twirling and Twisting (You Hovered)
CNC plasma cut mild steel on skin
2022
Blanket For Us
Plasma cut mild sheet steel and silk ribbon.
2021
