Discarded Ancestors
At the Intersection of Art and Ancestry
Treasure lives amidst the rubble of lost neighborhoods. Elizabeth Leader is drawn to places and objects that most of us pass by on the street without even a glance. A discarded toy or the blank windows of an abandoned house are clues to a story that has been lost in time. When she came across a family photo album that had been tossed in the trash she transformed it into extraordinary collages that capture the essence of America’s industrial decline. Genealogical research revealed the immigrant families who came together, lived, and disappeared into that decline, almost without leaving a trace. An exquisite homage to all of our discarded ancestors.
Artist Elizabeth Leader creates art out of artifacts, bringing these stories to life. She has a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her mixed-media art has been exhibited across the nation. She lives and works in Buffalo, New York.
