Nick Leeper, SJ (b. 1992, New Jersey, USA) is a Jesuit scholastic, teacher, and pop iconographer. His work combines traditional icon writing with contemporary pop art techniques that explore the interplay between the sacred and the profane. Nick’s work delves into themes of nostalgia and imagination, often incorporating commercial advertisements to challenge an audience’s sacral awareness so that they can "find God in all things." Born in 1992 in New Jersey, USA, Leeper holds a Master's in Philosophy from Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He has had works displayed at a variety of venues, including bodegas, halfway homes, donut shops, and conventional art galleries. His work is in a variety of private collections in the United States. Leeper currently lives and works in Manhattan, New York.
In medieval times, before the era of “Art,” artworks were meant to be read, not merely seen. Reading engages the imagination, seeing beyond physical appearances to encounter spiritual depth. Pseudo-Dionysius discusses how religious art was possible through dissemblance rather than ressemblance. We can only understand the supernatural through analogy with the natural. In contemporary art, after the end of “Art,” this concept of meaning-making through dissemblance returned to the artwork that was lost in the long shadow of the Renaissance. Through everyday objects, such as a can of soup or a Brillo box, meaning is revealed if one reads it and transcends the aesthetic. These objects are transfigured into symbols that embody concepts and meaning beyond themselves. Through this process, art can become a form of meditation and a vehicle for transcendent experience. I invite viewers to become perceivers, not of material but of meaning.
