Women’s History Month Salute: Leslie Barlow

The Artist

Artist Leslie Barlow points to what she calls “real path-forgers like Kerry James Marshall, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Adrian Piper,” as some of her most important influences. The Minnesota-born and -raised painter is something of a “path forger” herself. 

Barlow’s paintings delve heavily into the lives of several subjects that are still marginalized in the art world and in painting. But she is most known for her work depicting multiracial families and individuals, which Western art still largely ignores.

One of Barlow’s largest exhibits thus far was 2017’s Loving, aptly named for the Supreme Court Loving v Virginia decision on interracial marriage, which featured ten portraits of interracial couples. 

“When we’re thinking about race and thinking about who has been prioritized, especially whose values have been prioritized in our visual media and paintings, and thinking about who belongs and who does not, I look at my paintings as a way to help heal and make space for Black and Brown folks, people of color,” she explained in an interview.

Thirty-four-year-old Barlow, who herself comes from a mixed heritage, received her BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Barlow actively exhibits her work throughout the United States, and many of her pieces are in private and public collections. One of her murals can be found outside the offices of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Although she reveals that she has always been an artist, she never envisioned art as a career. Until college, she had resigned herself to being an interior designer, the only serious career she thought would allow her to incorporate her passion for art. 

“I always really loved art as a child,” Barlow stated. “Art making has always been part of my life—just as a way for me to express myself. As a young person, I also used it to just pass the time. I didn’t actually know that you could be an artist as a career until college, when some professors presented it as a possibility.”

Having now established herself in the art world, Barlow must confront other issues. Being a person of color and being a woman also impact the ways she navigates her career. 

“I’m constantly trying to suppress my imposter syndrome. I can often be the youngest and the only woman of color in a room. Feelings of not being good enough, which is really White supremacy and patriarchy, can play with and mess up your mind.” 

Barlow takes steps to combat this. “I try my best to suppress those feelings, and therapy helps a lot. I also do a lot of work to support other young BIPOC artists, most of whom are women, through mentorship.”

Barlow tends to use large canvases and lots of slightly muted, vibrant color. On the canvas, those she depicts are curious and inviting. Instead of using the traditional term “subjects” for those she depicts, she uses the term “collaborator.” Explained Barlow, “I very much see it as a collaboration. I want my work to be honest, but I also want the person or people that are being represented to feel connected to it as well, or I guess, approve, because sometimes the stuff I’m painting about is tough, not happy stories.”

Although Barlow has been lauded for her pioneering work on interracial relationships, it would be an oversimplification to say that encompasses her whole mission. Her practice goes much further. “Yes, my work talks about adoption and mixed-race identity and Black and Indigenous people,” she stated. 

“But there’s so much embedded in the work talking about love, talking about belonging, talking about family, talking about relationships, the home, ancestry, and that idea of witnessing storytelling. That gaze is really important in our work—seeing and being seen. All these things are really human things.”

Barlow shared that earlier in her career, White audiences often told her they did not connect with her art, leaving her sometimes feeling “shaky” about her work. “I got feedback that they really didn’t understand what I was trying to say and that they felt what I was trying to show wasn’t important. They couldn’t connect to the kinds of images I was sharing.” 

Barlow didn’t remain daunted for long. A deep belief in what she was doing, fueled her. “I’m really persistent. ‘No’ is like my fuel. I’m definitely going to keep making this work. 

“I belong here. They belong here. These are real stories of real people. And I hadn’t really seen very many images like the ones I wanted to share. I just felt like that wasn’t a good representation of what my world and our world was really like.”