Leah Ke Yi Zheng Abandons Law Studies to Pursue Artistic Career
In a surprising career turn, Leah Zheng abandoned her law studies to pursue a life as an artist. Raised in China, she initially studied traditional painting, learning calligraphy and the techniques of revered masters. However, upon entering adulthood, Zheng chose to become a judge, despite her lack of understanding of United States history and the American legal code. She sat for the LSAT in Hong Kong and enrolled in law school in Indiana, but soon grew disillusioned and left during her second year. Her mother encouraged her to pursue a business degree, but Zheng made a dramatic decision.
"For three days, I shut myself away, smoking and drinking," Zheng recalled. "I told myself: 'Either I will die, or I'll make a choice I can commit to.'" Shortly afterwards, she applied to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Zheng's gamble is proving successful. In January, she opened her second solo exhibition with Mendes Wood DM in New York, and is preparing for upcoming shows in Vienna and at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, where she now resides. On the day of a studio visit, she was meticulously planning the layout of the Vienna gallery. Evidence of her young son was apparent in piles of marbles on the floor. Artists' monographs and weighty works by Barthes, Foucault, and Dostoyevsky populated nearly every corner of the shared workspace.
A fusion of logic and instinct characterizes Zheng's works. Rational, schematic compositions coexist with more instinctual gestures in pieces like Untitled (fuseé in its flesh), a 2023 painting made as part of a series of machine works begun three years earlier. Disembodied cylinders and gears appear against an abstracted backdrop, divided by bands of color that could be machines themselves. Many of the machines depicted in Zheng's works are fusees—components in antique watches and clocks—while others are fictional devices of indeterminate purpose. In No.45 (2024), a major series inspired by the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, horizontal bars form visual interludes that are at once precise and enigmatic.
"Life is so saturated with data and information today," Zheng said. "The spiritual capacity I explore disrupts this data and information loop." One method for interrupting this loop is to puzzle viewers about the very nature of painting. Zheng uses Chinese silks instead of canvases, adhered to custom stretchers crafted from mahogany, cherry, and other woods. Nearly all her paintings are irregularly shaped. Zheng describes her works as "uncanny" entities that challenge our perception of painting's two-dimensionality. The translucency of silk makes front and back, surface and depth simultaneously present in Zheng's work, especially when hung in front of a light source, lending the paintings a diffuse iridescence reminiscent of watercolor.
"Traditional Chinese painting was a dead end," Zheng stated. "My work aims to re-imagine or re-edit it," in part by combining ancient materials with the formal challenges posed by the Western avant-garde.
Risk, both conceptual and physical, underpins Zheng's approach. Silk is a demanding medium, and any error becomes permanent. However, Zheng remains undaunted. "There are no mistakes," she said. "Every mark is truthful. Every mark is authentic."
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- Leah Zheng, previously a law student, embraced a life as an artist, showcasing her work in various exhibitions, such as her second solo exhibition at Mendes Wood DM in New York.
- In her studio, Zheng's works exhibit a unique fusion of logic and instinct, with pieces like Untitled (fuseé in its flesh) that feature mechanical motifs, while her irregularly shaped paintings on Chinese silks challenge the conventions of traditional two-dimensional painting.
- The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Zheng studied, played a significant role in her career turn, as she now prepares for upcoming shows in Vienna and at the Renaissance Society in Chicago.
- Beyond her art, Zheng's lifestyle has shifted from a focus on education and self-development, like law studies, towards a more artistic lifestyle that includes a deep appreciation for fashion, beauty, and philosophy, as evidenced by the books of Barthes, Foucault, and Dostoyevsky found in her studio.
