THE BLANC Announces Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Neil Leonard Solo Exhibition Midtown Sound: Listening Legacy

THE BLANC Announces Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Neil Leonard

Solo Exhibition Midtown Sound: Listening Legacy

April 2, 2026 – May 2, 2026

Opening Reception 6pm-8pm

 Left: Neil Leonard, Casino de Angeli, Lecce, Italy (2023). Right: Neil Leonard, Midtown 1935 (2026).

THE BLANC

15 E 40th Street, New York, NY 10016

New York, New York, March 9, 2026 – THE BLANC announces the inauguration of its artist-in-residency program with the composer, saxophonist, and interdisciplinary artist Neil Leonard (b. 1959). Leonard will present new works at his first solo exhibition in New York City, Midtown Sound: Listening Legacy, at THE BLANC, curated by Luca Coclite and Laura Perrone of the Italian cultural research platform and residency studioconcreto.

“In developing our residency program, we sought to create a space where research and performance could converge,” said Linda Liang, Director of THE BLANC. “Neil Leonard’s practice—connecting his family’s role in New York’s ‘War on Noise’ to the very neighborhood where we are located—perfectly captures the spirit of research and experimentation we intend to foster here.”

Leonard’s sound installations comprise an aural history of listening across three generations. The works feature the sound of his own saxophone and period objects that reanimate the sonic conditions of the 1930s when amplified music, radio, and street sound sparked public debates around social morality. The exhibition coincides with the centennial of the first civic noise measurements in NY, and examines Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s 1935 “War on Noise” campaign, in which Leonard’s grandfather Paul J. Washburn – in an office which was diagonally across from the current site of THE BLANC – conducted scientific noise measurements throughout the city to create sonic maps of New York. The campaign directed the public’s attention to noise as a measurable civic condition with social and public-health consequences.

The exhibition includes a new installation by Leonard that extends work developed in Italy with studioconcreto, building on themes from his 2023 piece Casino dei Angeli, which is itself rooted in a Chinese folk melody later incorporated into Puccini’s Turandot. That earlier work was staged within a ruined site in southern Italy, where rapid urban development surrounds a historic structure. Presented now in New York at THE BLANC, the new installation completes a historical circle, returning Leonard’s family legacy of noise measurement to its original Manhattan context. As the inaugural residency exhibition, it introduces THE BLANC as a site for artists whose work investigates the intersection of personal narrative and the urban environment.

Leonard will inaugurate THE BLANC’s artist-in-residence program from March 12, 2026 through May 12, 2026, occupying one of the ten newly renovated studios on the sixth floor. Artists in Residence are currently selected by THE BLANC’s curatorial team, with the program set to transition to an open call format in 2027. As a part of his residency, Leonard will present a concert marking the centennial of the premiere of Puccini’s opera Turandot in THE BLANC’s 12th floor performance space on May 1, 2026.

Midtown Sound: Listening Legacy will be on view April 2, 2026, through May 2, 2026, in THE BLANC’s ground floor gallery.

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About Neil Leonard

Neil Leonard is a composer, saxophonist, and transdisciplinary artist. The healing power of collaboration, collective listening, and cross-cultural dialogue is central to his work. He maintains active collaborations in Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Cuba, China, Italy, Japan, Korea, Tanzania, the UK, and across the US.

Leonard was a Sacatar Institute Fellow (2023), Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist-in-Residence (2016); Fulbright Specialist Award recipient (2016); M.I.T. Art, Culture, and Technology Research Affiliate. He is a Professor Emeritus at the Berklee College of Music and the founding Artistic Director of the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute.

About THE BLANC

Founded in 2021, THE BLANC is a contemporary art space that provides a “blank slate” to encourage interdisciplinary exchange and to nurture creative talent. THE BLANC occupies five stories of a historic building in Midtown Manhattan, including gallery, event, and artist studio spaces. The organization presents an exhibition program focused on artists without a prior history of exhibiting in New York City. In addition to its exhibition program, THE BLANC hostspanel talks, workshops, and regular performances. For more information, please visit /www.theblanc.art. 

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Katrina Stewart

Account Manager, Visual Arts

Blue Medium

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katrina@bluemedium.com