Lesley Schiff

Lesley Schiff (Born January 27, 1951) is an American artist. Rising to prominence for her innovative use of using the color copier “as a paintbrush”, she is known for her signature practice of using color laser printers to create images. Her art is known to cover a wide range of subject matter from worldly affairs to nature and the mystical. Many of her works are included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Mead Art Museum and Buckingham Palace.

Artistic Career
Schiff majored in painting at The Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating in 1974 she moved to New York City. The next year she began using a Xerox 6500 color copier as a paintbrush and by 1981 she had completed her first collection of prints titled Seasons, which was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art that same year.

After Seasons was obtained by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection, the portfolio was immediately acquired by Gianfranco Ferre, Manufacturers Hanover & Trust, Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, Goldman Sachs, The New York Public Library, and Security Pacific National Bank.

In 1990, Canon USA took notice of Schiff’s work and donated the Canon CLC 500, one of their newest color laser copiers to her studio. Unlike most other color copiers of the time, the Canon CLC 500 was able to use black ink, giving Schiff access to use darker tones in her art. Canon went on to fund her first exhibit using black: The Color of Light and continues to sponsor her to this day.

Other companies quickly began to take notice. In 1992, Schiff was commissioned by International Papers, Hammermill brand to endorse archival papers they produced for their laser photocopiers. They sponsored her exhibition Angels & Money which toured around America, going to Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Seattle.

In 1993, Columbia Records commissioned 104 portraits of their most celebrated recording artists for a permanent installation on 3 floors of their executive offices. This project took her until 1995 to complete.

While on commission, Schiff was introduced to Bob Dylan’s manager in 2006, which resulted in a contract do for a limited edition portrait of Dylan. This portrait consisted of 45 images: 15 divergent images of Dylan, 15 icons that were synonymous with his enigmatic persona and 15 illustrated songs using a font designed exclusively by Matthew Carter for the lyrics.