{"person":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"702"},"lastName":{"label":"Last Name","value":"Daley"},"endDate":{"label":"Death Date","value":"2006"},"displayName":{"label":"Name","value":"Leonard Daley"},"objects":{"label":"Objects","value":[{"objectTitle":"Untitled (Black/White)","objectNumber":"2022.6.92","objectID":"8420"},{"objectTitle":"Untitled","objectNumber":"2003.20.11","objectID":"3191"}]},"geographyDied":{"label":"Died","value":["Kingston",""]},"biography":{"label":"Biography","value":"Whirls of animals, humans, and spirits fill Leonard Daley\u2019s paintings. With heavy brushstrokes and forms flowing between abstraction and realism, he created hallucinatory works that frequently drew on his own subconscious and the local myth, culture, and ecology of Jamaica. The \u201cJohn Crow,\u201d a much-derided scavenging vulture, regularly appears in these vortexes as a sort of self-portrait, as do more enigmatic creatures amid distorted faces. The spontaneous feel of the paintings reflects Daley\u2019s automatic process. He worked with scraps of plywood and oil-drum lids for surfaces as well as canvas, as he developed densely layered images that appear to pulse with the movement and energy of life.Daley was born around 1930, grew up in the parish of Saint Catherine in Jamaica, and lived in Kingston before returning to a more rural home. His jobs included being a taxi driver and a cook. Although he started creating art in the 1960s, no works prior to 1979 are known to survive. His practice extended to his self-made house: paintings covered the walls of his small home in the hills just outside of Kingston.He came to prominence with his inclusion in the 1987 exhibition <em>Fifteen Intuitives<\/em> at the National Gallery of Jamaica, which featured self-taught artists from across the country. Daley was quoted in the catalogue explaining his practice: \u201cI close my eyes and pray a lot. . . . Sometimes I sit down and look at the plain wall, and I can\u2019t penetrate it, and so I will use some water in my mouth, and spew it on the wall and whatever way it dries it comes out as a picture. . . . I read it and the next thing I look at the sunset and I look at the moon and sometimes when I am concerned about certain situations I meditate.\u201d As Daley was one of the Jamaican \u201cIntuitives,\u201d his work was recognized as part of a wider formation of Jamaica\u2019s cultural identity in the wake of its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. Daley died in 2006, his work having been exhibited both nationally and internationally.Allison C. Meier, 2025Text written as part of \u201cRethinking Biography,\u201d an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)."},"geographyActive":{"label":"Active","value":["Kingston",""]},"geographyBorn":{"label":"Born","value":["Kingston",""]},"beginDate":{"label":"Birth Date","value":"1930"},"firstName":{"label":"First Name","value":"Leonard"},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/2886/full"},"names":{"label":"Names","value":"Leonard Daley"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"(c. 1930\u20132006)"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"150994"}}]}