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