Gil Leebrick

Gil Leebrick has been photographing and teaching photography for more than 35 years. He is Professor Emeritus of Photography and the former Director of the Wellington B. Gray Gallery in the School of Art and Design at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Gil was Associate Professor of Art at Clemson University and lectured at the University of Missouri and Kent State University. He was Director of the Appalachian Environmental Arts Center from 1984-1991 teaching at Western Carolina university, and Director of the Image Foundation in Hawaii from 1977 – 1982 where he also taught photography at Honolulu community college . He is the recipient of a Southeast NEA Artist Grant and two North Carolina Arts Council Artist Grants to photograph Pre-Columbian Native American ceremonial sites resulting in numerous photographic trips throughout the United States, and an extensive portfolio on the subject. His photographs have been exhibited in over 200 exhibits and reside in numerous public and private collections.

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Gil’s photographic images concern primarily the idea of land and landscape. His investigations of metaphor and symbol of personal meaning have culminated in a large body of work entitled Visual Meditations. Recently exhibited ,The Ourboros portfolio and the Gateless Gate portfolio are part of this ongoing body of work which emerges from his practice of Zen Buddhism. A quote from Peter Matthiessen reflects this practice: “When one pays attention to the present, there is great pleasure in the awareness of small things”.