Observing the fear with which city dwellers approach nature inspired Catarina Leitão to pursue ideas for survival gear in the form of watercolor drawings and sculptural installations. Portable Private Garden is an anthropomorphic, hybrid garment and tent that contains a mysterious interior retreat filled with soft plant-like shapes. Leitão suggests ways to mediate interaction with nature that accommodate a desire to be closer to that natural world while minimizing danger or discomfort. These concepts are modeled on equipment for camping or military exercises where survival is a greater risk than control. The drawings for Chair Container and Convenient Rock suggest consumer products that would help an individual control his or her immediate environment.

Catarina Leitão has had solo exhibitions at Michael Steinberg Gallery, New York, NY, and Pedro Cera Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal. Her work was included in Greater New York 2005, at P.S. 1/MoMA, Long Island City, NY; Bienal de Pontevedra, 2004 Pontevedra, Spain; Field: Science, Technology and Nature, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. She has participated in the Triangle Arts Residency, Brooklyn, NY; the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s residency at the Woolworth Building, both in New York, NY. She earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and MFA from Hunter College, New York, NY. www.catarinaleitao.net