Steven Johnson Leyba
Biography
Steven Johnson Leyba (born September 3, 1966) is a Mescalero Apache artist, painter, fine art book maker, author, spoken word performance artist, and musician. He has been called the father of “Sexpressionism” by art critic Carlo McCormick.
His work has been criticized for using the swastika symbol and sexual imagery for the purposes of shock and controversy.
In 1994 he was made a Reverend in the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey.
Work
Leyba’s mixed media paintings utilize photographic collage, acrylic paint, oil paint, beadwork, as well as human blood. Leyba’s work attempts to 'liberate' human sexuality from commercialism. Using recontextualized images of human genitalia he emphasizes aesthetic notions of beauty and the politics of sexuality.
His hand-made fine art books which can weigh up to seventy pounds consist of bound pages of paintings on canvas.
His public performances consist of spoken word rants, cutting, piercing and extreme acts of degradation and sadomasochism.
He has released two albums of spoken word and music on Adversary Records: The Rev. Steven Johnson Leyba Presents: The United Satanic Apache Front, and Fuck Your Freedom. . He has produced album covers for the bands Unveiled and Faggot.
Inspiration
Leyba is inspired by Native American motifs such as the swastika, Apache Gahn Dancers, images of Native American warriors such as Geronimo, as well as the landscape of the human body.
Censorship
In March of 1997 his painting “Wounded Knee Decomposition” was censored by the KiMo Theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico during a Native American art exhibition held to raise money to allow American Indian prison inmates to hold and attend sweat lodge ceremonies. A special screen was set up to segregate his painting from the rest of the exhibit.[1]
Fame
In 1997 he performed his “Apache Whiskey Rite” before an audience of the San Francisco political establishment at the political consultant Jack Davis’ fiftieth birthday party. During the performance Leyba was sodomized by a woman wearing a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey in a harness. The performance resulted in national media attention [2] [3] including the front page of the New York Times [4], references in scholarly articles [5], and public debate.
In 2002 he was the subject of the film documentary Unspeakable [6] by Mark Rokoff.
Books
Leyba’s first book Coyote, Satan, Amerika was published by Last Gasp in 2001 and featured reviews of his work by William S. Burroughs, H.R. Giger, Poppy Z. Brite, Clive Barker, and others. His memoir The Last American Painter, was published by Coyotel Press in 2008. In 2009 Coyotel Press published his fine art book, Sexpressionist Portraits, and a collaboration with Dave Archer, Steve Hapy, and Will Taylor, The Trickster’s Bible.