Rena Leinberger

"Fragment," wool, felt and brick, 15" x 66" x 3"

"Into the cellar," Mini dv video, color with sound, 5min 30sec., 2005

It will be enough
I work with potatoes.  I sew and knit sculptures that cover and wrap potatoes, whittle sculptures that clean and remove potatoes, and photographs and film potatoes in absurd situations of excess and longing.

Evocative of farming, clothing, and the isolation of home, the works in It will be enough grow out of sickness, slowness and loss.  They are a collapse of hope, but also a belief in the power and necessity of sustenance.

Sometimes this sustenance comes in the most unexpected of ways: potatoes have often been the last resort in famine and war.   But their spread to worldwide cuisine depended on Spanish Conquistadors and a shipwreck that washed potatoes ashore to Ireland.

Potatoes are also very versatile and soothing: they can be boiled, steamed, fried, grilled or baked.  They can grow in cold and inhospitable soil.  They have some of almost every nutrient; it is possible to survive a long time eating only potatoes.
 

M.F.A. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
B.A.    Anderson University, Anderson, IN

John Davis Gallery, Sculptures Choose Sculptures, Hudson, NY

As Small As Possible, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Waiting, (with Ben Butler, as Lint) Evanston Art Center, IL
Compendium, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Catching Up With the Sun, Klein Art Works, Chicago, IL
University Show, Northern Indiana Arts Council, Munster, IN
At the Edge, Gallery 400, Chicago, IL
12 x 12, New Artists / New Work, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Sediment, site specific installation, collaboration with Ben Butler, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
LAPSE, site specific installation, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Collectable, Northern Illinois University Art Gallery, Chicago, IL