Leora Maltz-Leca

Leora Maltz-Leca is a Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the Department of Theory and History of Art and Design. She teaches large lecture courses on global modernism and contemporary art, and leads specialized seminars on materiality, process, race, critical theory, and the artist's lecture.

Her educational background includes a BA from Yale University, an MA from Brown University, and both an MA and PhD from Harvard University. Before her academic career, she worked in corporate law and in the international sales and design sectors of the fashion industry.

Maltz-Leca's research focuses on contemporary art, particularly how artists from postcolonial contexts and the global south are reshaping late modernism by challenging its assumptions, hierarchies, and dogmas. Her work explores the intersection of materiality, process, and politics in contemporary art practice, with special attention to African art. Drawing on her background in painting and philosophy, she examines how studio materials and processes carry both pragmatic and metaphorical significance.

Her publications reveal a consistent engagement with William Kentridge's work, contemporary African artists like Pascale Marthine Tayou, and the political dimensions of artistic process. She has written extensively for publications including Artforum, Frieze, African Arts, and Art Bulletin, where she serves on the editorial board.

• 2016 CAA Millard Mess publication award
• 2011 Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writer's book award
• 2011/12 Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2010 Library of Congress Swann fellowship for animation

Maltz-Leca founded the Redwood Contemporary Arts Initiative (RCAI) at Newport's Redwood Library & Athenaeum in 2017, which organizes lectures, symposia, and exhibitions. Her curatorial projects have received funding from the Ford Foundation (2018), VIA Foundation (2018), and Robert Lehmann Foundation (2017).