Resume

Education

• Self-taught in basketry.
• Learned Ozark splint knife method from traditional basketmakers of Northwest Arkansas

Grants and Fellowships

• James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist, Washington, DC 2013
• United States Artists Fellowship, USA Wingate Fellow, Los Angeles, CA 2012
• Arkansas Living Treasure Award - Department of Arkansas Heritage and Arkansas Crafts Council, 2005
• Walter Gropius Master Artist, Huntington Art Museum, Huntington, WV 2002
• Mid-America Arts Alliance/NEA Fellowship Award, 1995
• Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship Grant, 1993

Selected Exhibitions

•  MIDTOWN - Salon 94, Historic Leiber House @390 Park Ave., New York, NY 2017
• Still Crazy After All These Years - 30th Anniversary - BrownGrotta Gallery, Wilton, CT 2017
• Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America - National Basketry Organization and The University of Missouri Museum of Art & Archaeology, Columbia, MO and Eight other venues, 2017-2020
• A Measure of the Earth - The Cole-Ware Collection, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC, 2013
• Crafting A Continuum - Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ, 2013
• Leon Niehues - 21st Century Basketmaker - Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock, AR, 2011-2012
• Leon Niehues Then and Now - Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR 2011-2012
• All Things Considered VI - Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, 2011
• Interwoven: Contemporary Baskets - Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH 2007
• All Things Considered IV - Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, 2007
• 2005 Annual Basketry Invitational - Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 2005
• Magnificent Extravagance: Artists and Opulence - Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI, 2005
• Engaging Nature: Contemporary Baskets from the Collection of Lloyd and Margit Cotsen - Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, 2005
• 4 Basketry Artists - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2004
• Baskets Now: USA - Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR, 2002
• Two Perspectives in Form: The Basketry of Michael Davis and Leon Niehues - Atlanta International Museum, Atlanta, GA, 2001
• That Was Then, This Is Now: A 35th Anniversary Retrospective - Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 2000
• American Basketmaking: Tradition and Innovation - Handweavers Guild of America, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, 1999
• Contemporary International Basketmaking - London Crafts Council, London, England, 1999; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England, 1999
• Arkansas Craftsman: Leon Niehues - Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AR, 1999
• 1999 Basketry Exhibition - materia/The Hand and the Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 1999
• Quality of Dimension - Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR, 1998
• Woven Forms: Contemporary American Basketry - Haydon Gallery, Nebraska Art Association, Lincoln, NE, 1998
• New Baskets: Expanding the Concept - Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 1997
• Contemporary Art Baskets 97 - Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH, 1997
• The 10th Wave: New Baskets & Freestanding Fiber Sculpture - Brown/Grotta Gallery, Wilton, CT, 1997
• New Work - Brown/Grotta Gallery, Wilton, CT, 1996
• The White house Craft Collection Exhibition - del Mano Gallery, West Los Angeles, CA, 1996
• The White House Craft Collection - National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; American Craft Museum, New York, NY, 1995
• Contemporary Basketry - Tempe Arts Center, Tempe, AZ 1994
• Men Making Baskets - Banaker Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1994
• Basketry Japan 1994 - Japan Basketry Association, Tokyo, Japan, 1994
• Arkansas: Year of American Craft - Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AR, 1993
• Divergent Views - Brown/Grotta Gallery, Wilton, CT, 1993
• Basketry Japan 1992 - Japan Basketry Association, Tokyo, Japan, 1992
• Fittings: Metaphysical Junctures of Stick Structures - The Farrell Collection, Washington DC, 1992
• Varying Inspirations: Basketry in the 1990's - Craft Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 1992
• Basketweave 1990 - Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center, Athens, OH, 1989
• American Contemporary Works in Wood - Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center, Athens, OH, 1989
• Arrowmont Faculty Show - Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, 1995, 1990, 1989
• The Artform is a Basket - Albertson-Peterson Gallery Inc., Winter Park, FL, 1989
• The Art of Contemporary Baskets -Artworks Gallery, Seattle, WA 1988

Publications

• Crafting a Continuum, Rethinking Contemporary Craft, University of North Carolina Press 2013
• A Measure of the Earth, University of North Carolina Press 2013
• AY Magazine, "Weaving a Tale", Little Rock, AR 2013
• Arkansas Democrat Gazette, "Reinventing the Basket", Little Rock, AR 2012
• Sunshine Artist, "Leon Niehues/Evolving Tradition", Orlando, FL 2010
• ION Art, "Leon Niehues - Artist Profile", Eureka Springs, AR 2008
• The Morning News, "Baskets Elevated to Art" Springdale, AR May 1, 2005
• Craft Arts International, "Tilting Form and Texture: Leon Niehues", Issue #49, Sydney, Australia 2000
• The Art of Basketry, Sterling Publishing CO, New York, NY 2000
• Living With Form, The Horn Collection, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR 1999
• The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, "Woven Wonders", April 18, 1999
• American Craft Magazine, "Leon Niehues: Weave Master", October/November 1998
• Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, "Comfortable Perfection", Spring 1998
• Arkansas, Bill Bradley Publishing 1996
• The White House Collection of American Crafts, Harry N. Abrams Inc. 1995
• The New York Times, "The Crafts of America Find Recognition at the Top", December 23, 1995
• Detroit Free Press, pg. 10E, July 23, 1993
• The New York Times, "Baskets to Tickle the Imagination", pg. 24, June 6, 1993
• Fiberarts Magazine, Summer 1992, January 1988, November 1987

Collections

•  Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
• Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
• Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
• Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
• Lloyd and Margit Cotsen, Los Angeles, CA
• Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
• The Horn Collection, Little Rock, AR
• Charles A Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
• The White House First Permanent White House Craft Collection, Washington, DC
• Arkansas
• Pinnacol Assurance, Denver, CO
• Marshall Isley, Phoenix, AZ
• Vectra Bank, Denver, CO