statement

Waking up in the dark,

I run through the woods and fields in the half light of dawn.

Crossing sensory and psychological boundaries.

These attempts to capture the rush of the ephemeral result in the trampling of sacred ground.

The pursuit causes devastation, in that all too human way of corrupting beauty through insatiable appetites.

My search for intimacy in nature embodies the desire for connection and the frustration of separation.

The work that results holds tensions between presence and absence, exposure and retreat, frailty and strength.

about

I work across drawing, performance, walking, and photography. Using my own body as a research tool, I explore how we humans connect and disconnect from ourselves in nature.

Following a career in design and climate change communications, I began devising somatic performances about power dynamics, physical impact, and occupation of space through an MFA in Creative Practice at Trinity Laban (2017-2019).

I have exhibited work in solo and group shows in London, and have created participatory installations around the UK. In 2022, I received Arts Council DYCP funding to support my practice.

In 2023 I exhibited ‘Warning Signal’, a new body of work and participatory performance at Shatwell Farm, in rural Somerset, (June 2023).

My lastest project is a community drawing event in Somerset at the No. 6 Bruton gallery, (December 2024).

Since 2010, I have taught on BA and MA design programmes in the UK and Europe.

I am currently a Lecturer in design at Bath Spa University, where I am researching movement as a design tool in higher education.

I also teach online courses on embodied practice and the Feldenkrais Method.

“Leonora is a brave, curious and committed artist with an extraordinary ability to weave incongruous systems and patterns between subject, object and nature. She fearlessly utilizes her own body to test thresholds, moving seamlessly through performance, photography, drawing or painting. Magic, sexuality, order and chaos are conjured and implied, with haunted figures and forms appearing and fading from view simultaneously.”

Ceri Hand, curator, coach, artist mentor

Image credits:

Top: Leonora Oppenheim. Somerset, 2021

Middle: James Keats. Laban Showcase, 2019

Bottom: Dave Watts. Shatwell Farm, 2023