I’m Alejandra Leibovich. I grew up under dictatorship, in a world where being noticed could be dangerous and blending in could be a form of protection. You learned to read the room. To watch before speaking. To keep certain thoughts and feelings inside. To know when it was okay to be seen and when it was better to disappear.

Later, I learned other ways of disappearing. Being “too smart” could make you unlikeable. Having a strong point of view could make you difficult. So you soften it. Shrink it. Put another layer around it.

Eventually, you can become very good at hiding.

So I built an inner universe and I paint it.

It's full of little characters trying to make sense of a world that keeps changing around them.

They watch. They hide. They build things. They stay close to each other. They investigate suspicious lakes, unfamiliar skies, strange planets, and things that may or may not have teeth.

They are curious.

But they are careful.

I know that feeling.

I grew up under dictatorship, in a world where being noticed could be dangerous and blending in could be a form of protection. You learned to read the room. To watch before speaking. To keep certain thoughts and feelings inside. To know when it was okay to be seen and when it was better to disappear.

Later, I learned other ways of disappearing. Being “too smart” could make you unlikeable. Having a strong point of view could make you difficult. So you soften it. Shrink it. Put another layer around it.

Eventually, you can become very good at hiding.

So I built an inner universe.

It is populated by cats, dogs, strange trees, impossible landscapes, pink oceans, suspicious shadows, and creatures trying to figure out how much of themselves they can reveal while the world rearranges itself around them.

Sometimes they hide.

Sometimes they find someone they trust and sit beside them.

Sometimes they venture out.

Sometimes they put their feelings in a jar.

And sometimes they build an entire planet around themselves, only to discover that being completely protected can also mean being completely alone.

Visually, my work comes from the clarity and authority of advertising posters and the emotional immediacy of animation: color, simple forms, characters, and an entire story contained inside a single frame.

At first, the paintings may look playful.

They are.

But underneath the humor, color, and strange little creatures is a question I have carried for most of my life:

How much of ourselves can we show and still feel protected?

The characters don’t always know the answer.

Neither do I.

So we keep looking.

We keep getting a little closer.

And we keep checking the suspicious things.

~Alejandra Leibovich