Leslie Labowitz Starus
Most Recent Affiliation:
- ARIADNE: A Social Art Network, SPROUTIME, and Otis Art Institute
Location:
- Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Website:
Bio:
Leslie Labowitz Starus is a Los Angeles artist and entrepreneur. She earned her MFA from Otis Art Institute in 1972, then moved to Düsseldorf, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar. In Düsseldorf, Labowitz-Starus attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where she briefly interacted with Joseph Beuys (he was dismissed from his position the semester she arrived). She continued to live and work in Germany, teaching at a Gymnasium and the University in Bonn, Germany. Her feminist performance model was developed on the streets of Bonn. She returned to Los Angeles in 1977 and met Suzanne Lacy, who was producing the iconic “THREE WEEKS IN MAY” public performance on rape in LA. Leslie participated in TWIM and their long collaboration was initiated, producing seven major public works under ARIADNE: A Social Art Network. In 1980, Leslie began a 40-year durational performance called SPROUTIME, a multi-layered series on eco-feminism, survival, food production and personal experience as a child of a holocaust survivor. It became a real business for 30 years.
