Minna Leunig is a visual artist currently living and working on the traditional lands of the Larrakia people in Darwin. Painting both on canvas and large scale public murals, Minna creates wild and playful images inspired by the unique beauty and feeling across a vast array of native Australian landscapes - all the way from the dry sclerophyll forests of the Victorian Strathbogie ranges (Taungurung country - from where she originally hails), to the tangled mangroves and thick rainforests of Cape York. Through her paintings, she seeks to spark a sense of appreciation for the natural world as well as an interest in issues relating to environmental conservation - during a time where fragile ecosystems need our care and protection the most.
Minna is interested in the visual language of symbols - the simplifying and stripping back of shape to essential forms. Her work features bold silhouettes, organic lines, limited colour palette and demonstrates a deep consideration for how shapes sit alongside one another to communicate a harmonious and interconnected feeling - symbolic of finely balanced ecosystems and the way in which specific plants and animals exist alongside one another to create an interactive, symbiotic stability. Minna’s work is also an expression and celebration of aliveness - of the beauty of being here. Her work emanates joy, playfulness, humour and a sense of wildness - reflective not only of the external world around us, but also of the animalistic life force within us - intuitive, carnal, spirited, divine.
As well as having exhibited at galleries such as Backwoods, aMBUSH, Saint Cloche, Outré, Yeah Nice and Juddy Roller, Minna has a keen interest in bringing art out of gallery spaces and into the public realm through large scale murals, working by the philosophy that art should be an integral part of everyday life, and accessible to all.