Opening July 24, 2026 | More information coming soon. Sign up here to be the first to learn when reservations are open.
“As an artist, I look to bring awareness to these issues by transporting viewers with paintings that portray the splendor of what we stand to lose by our inaction.” – Leslie Wayne
Leslie Wayne's new exhibition, The Unintended Blues documents rising sea levels through aerial landscape paintings of vulnerable US shorelines and melting icebergs in the Arctic Circle. Additional multi-media pieces will engage viewers with issues around present day climate science. In these works, Wayne captures the beauty of our natural environment and renders with graphic clarity one of our greatest existential threats.
The exhibition in the Upper Gallery at the Arts Center at Governors Island runs from July 24-September 27, Fridays-Sunday, 12pm - 5pm. Join us at the opening reception on July 23 at 5pm - 7pm in the Upper Gallery. More information coming soon!
Leslie Wayne is an artist whose work lies at the intersection of abstraction and representation. While she’s most known for her highly dimensional abstract paintings based on geology, her recent aerial landscapes conjure up deep questions about the American landscape, its mythologies and the environment. Wayne has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is in numerous public collections. She has received awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Francis J. Greenburger Foundation, Pollock Krasner Foundation, NYSCA, and NYFA, among others. She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery.
Funding for The Unintended Blues is provided by The Deborah Buck Foundation, Morgan Stanley Blue Rider Group and New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists Grant.
Special thanks to Anna Raginskaya, Jack Shainman Gallery, and UOVO.
Collaborators: Don Porcaro, Production Consultant; Michael Lantz, MaloTek Productions, video production; Giacomo Belletti, videography.