A Little About Leslie

Pronouns: he/they

H. Leslie Foster II is a Los Angeles-based artist (occupied Gabrielino-Tongva land) using video art and installation to create beautifully strange contemplative ecologies that explore Black and queer futurity through the lens of dream logic. Their love for storytelling is inspired by a childhood spent in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Berrien Springs, Michigan.

He completed his undergraduate degree from Southern Adventist University in 2006, and since then he’s shot music videos in Serbia, founded the 501(c)(3) Traveling Muse Pictures, spent five weeks undercover in Jamaica shooting a documentary about violent homophobia, gone to Burning Man eight times, talked Vice Media into saying nice things about his art, and completed an MFA in Design | Media Arts at UCLA in 2022, which was followed by a summer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA in 2024.

Their work has been exhibited internationally and includes two solo shows, the second of which, 59, was the culmination of a year-long art residency with the non-profit art collective Level Ground, where they served as the director of art residency for nearly six years and remains on staff in the role of Lead Mentor.

He was awarded the LACE Lighting Fund grant in 2023 and has had work exhibited at the Hammer Museum as part of a 2021 digital showcase and twice at the Torrance Art Museum, most recently in 2023 for his collaboration with artist Jack X Proctor entitled Amniosis.

Leslie is a founding member of the collective MÄARLA, which was formed by members of the 2018-2019 Torrance Art Museum FORUM residency cohorts. They currently hold the position of Assistant Professor of Time-Based Media at California State University, San Marcos, is a 2023-2026 Visual Arts Fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center as part of the Lucas Artist Residency, and is still trying to fulfill their life-long dream of running away with a band of sea-faring vagabond artists.

Contact Info

Tongva Land, Hollywood, CA

leslief.muse@gmail.com