- Xavier Laurent Leopold, Self portrait, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist
- Xavier Laurent Leopold, Learning How To Fly, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist
- Xavier Laurent Leopold, Nova, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist
- Xavier Laurent Leopold, Contours of the unseen, 2025. Close-up. Image courtesy of the artist
Xavier Laurent Leopold
Xavier Laurent Leopold is a multidisciplinary artist, author and lecturer based in South London. Rooted in faith, memory, and the dualities of modern life, his practice moves between abstraction, figuration, and sculpture to explore how time, introspection, and legacy are embodied and carried by both the body and material culture. With ancestral ties to Sierra Leone and Martinique, Leopold draws on personal and collective histories, pairing disciplined structure with moments of vulnerability to consider what it means to be held, to endure and to transform.
A Sir Frank Bowling Scholar at the Royal College of Art (MA Sculpture), Leopold previously worked as a trader in asset management, a background that informs the clarity and rigour of his studio methods. Beginning painting during the 2020 lockdown, he has since exhibited at the Barbican, Christie’s and Sotheby’s Institute, with international presentations in Dakar Biennial OFF and Brooklyn.
Recent commissions include work with Hospital Rooms, extending his practice into the public realm and care environments. A committed mental-health advocate and Place2Be Champion, he leads workshops across the UK and has lectured at institutions including Sotheby’s Institute and UEL. His first book, Art for the Heart - a meditation on creativity and healing is stocked by museums such as MoMA, Tate Modern and the Wellcome Collection. At its core, his work speaks to reinvention: the meeting of creativity and strategy, vulnerability and strength, to shape a resonant contemporary practice.