Michael Leonard is a Rochester NY area artist whose work focuses on highlighting human interaction and engagement within current social issues, both the productive and counterproductive. Topics of purposeful vs incidental ignorance, bigotry, emotional/social isolation, xenophobia and isolationism have all played a role in his work. In recent years his work has departed from achieving this through his classical, pictorialist background and began using interactive and installation elements to further enhance the experience for the user.

This marriage of imagery with devices and novel presentation creates an environment where the viewer must participate to bring the work to completion, while inaction on the part of the viewer still serves to illustrate a point. All of this is achieved through crafting a novel environment where the viewer feel welcome and encouraged to participate.