Juliana Cerqueira Leite was born in Chicago, USA in 1981 and grew up predominantly in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2000, Juliana left São Paulo where she had begun a BA in Fine Art at the Fundação Armando Álvarez Penteado to study at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London where she completed a BA in Sculpture in 2004. In 2006, Juliana completed an MFA in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and in 2007, she completed an MA in Drawing at Camberwell College of Art.
The spirit of Cerqueira Leite's work aligns itself with post-minimalist concerns of the body in space. Her sculptures are visually striking and tactile - often leading to feminist readings, especially owing to their historical influences and performative exuberance. However, Cerqueira Leite maintains that her works do not have a specifically 'feminist agenda,' but rather the undeniably corporeal dimension to her work shows a struggle between narrative and context that addresses universal human conditions. Her sculptures reconcile the "practice" of art making with the bodies of its creator and spectators, portraying the contingency of means and end, input and output.
Cerqueira Leite's work has featured in exhibitions including: 'Up Down In Out', at Trolley Gallery, London (2009); 'Return to Reason', HRL Contemporary, Gallery 77, London (2009); 'Dis-locate Festival', Ginza Art Lab, Tokyo (2008); 'Ethereal', Motdar, Copenhagen.