Leslie Barlow is a visual artist, educator, and cultural worker from Minneapolis, MN. Barlow believes art and artmaking is both healing and liberatory, through the power of representation, witnessing and storytelling. Her life-sized oil paintings are inspired by community and personal experiences and often serve as monuments to community members and explorations into how race entangles the intimate sphere of love, family, and friendship. Barlow is a recipient of the 2025 and 2019 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowships, and the 2021–23 Jerome Hill Fellowship. In addition to her studio practice, Barlow is an assistant professor of drawing and painting at the University of Minnesota and supports emerging artists as a part of the Public Functionary team. Barlow is also the founder of ConFluence, a BIPOC arts and science fiction convention, and co-founder of Creatives After Curfew, a mural collective.
During her residency, Barlow looks forward to spending her time in cross-disciplinary exchange with the Camargo community while working on Us, Becoming, a project examining Black cosplay and fandom as a site of world-building, alchemy and embodiment, and collective imagination. She plans to engage with local fandom communities, attend regional multi-fandom events, and conduct archival research to inform an upcoming exhibition.