Leila Pinto Presents Artwork at HFAF

Galleries from 14 different countries are coming to sell their art at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair (HFAF), which runs from July 13 to 16 at the Southampton Fairgrounds. But in addition to these galleries, there is also an artists-in-residence section of the fair, where 13 artists have been granted booths to present their work.

One of these artists, and the only one from the East End, is Leila Pinto, an artist who works in both digital and physical art.

“I have been coming out to the Hamptons for more than two decades now and a lot of my art is inspired from out here,” Pinto said.

Pinto has a home in Southampton, where she also has an art studio, and her connection to the East End comes through in her ocean inspired abstract collection. The action of painting the ocean in her later life has motivated her to not only capture it on the canvas, but to protect the ocean as well.

“I want to change the world in a small way. We can each do our part to preserve our planet and not dump plastic in the ocean and protect our ocean,” Pinto said.

She explained that during the COVID-19 shut down, she would post her artwork on social media. She learned that in this time of isolation, people found her paintings had a soothing effect on them. This was a welcome contrast to the chaotic reality of the world they were living in during the pandemic.

“I got inspired by the people that were responding to the pictures that I was posting on Instagram,” Pinto recalled. “They would say, ‘Oh my gosh Leila, your paintings were calming and serene. They uplifted my spirit.’”

When Pinto first became interested in pursing a career in art, she was working on Wall Street and raising a child at the same time. She dedicated her limited free time to attending night classes in basic painting and drawing.

“I was mostly doing oil on canvas and very traditional still life. I was really drawn to the landscape,” Pinto said.

Pinto stated that she has spent over 10,000 hours learning how to paint. Her work has been published, widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad, and pieces have been acquired by prominent collectors. Her paintings have also been featured in large public venues, including in New York City on the Jumbotron in Times Square and the Oculus at the World Trade Center Transport Hub, as well as in Monte Carlo, Singapore, and on a 24-foot monolith at the entrance to Scope Art Fair at Art Basel Miami.

Since her initial interest in painting and creating art, she has moved through several different mediums, with the most recent being NFTs and digital art.

NFTs is short for “Non-Fungible Tokens,” and they act as a type of cryptocurrency in the form of unique digital pieces of artwork. Pinto explained that her curiosity drove her to learn about NFTs. She taught herself about Crypto and BlockChain and other things that related to the digital art world. Pinto describes herself as someone who is always excited to learn, but who also knows how to properly manage risk and avoid diving too deep and getting scammed.

While her NFTs will not be for sale at HFAF, her physical artwork — including several blue and white paintings from her ocean inspired collection — will be on display and available for purchase.

“I have physical [art], and I have digital and then I have both,” Pinto said. “This is not an NFT show, but I might have a digital screen with the digital art rotating on the screen.”

Leila Pinto Fine Art will be in Booth 400 at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. For more information about Pinto and her work, visit leilapinto.com.