In two recent solo exhibitions Sofia Leiby presented related series of paintings that use silkscreen, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic to address the cognitive processes inherent in creative production. “The Making of a Beyonder” (Kimmerich Gallery, Berlin) looks at the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. The test, created in the 1960s by E. Paul Torrance, was a psychometric that aimed to measure creativity to better understand how it can be fostered in children; Leiby incorporated elements of the test onto her canvases, integrating this objective measuring device with her own art-making process. “A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P” (Michael Jon & Alan, Miami) takes graphology and hand-writing analysis as its entry-point, utilizing elements of these systems as material for manipulation. Thinking Creatively With Pictures reproduces installation images from both exhibitions alongside images of the paintings, their source materials, and the artist’s notes. Additionally, it includes essays by Bowen Chung, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at UCLA, and Alex Bacon, art historian and writer.
