02/25/2026
Join Leon Gallery on Saturday, March 7th from 6 - 10 pm for the anticipated solo exhibition of new paintings by the iconic
Dans Le Rêve Artist Statement:
Grief has changed me forever, and it took years to understand that this transformation does not have to be tragic. Some of the most beautiful change emerges when we allow ourselves to sit with our darkest thoughts and feelings. Melancholy has long fueled my work, and I have learned to embrace it as both teacher and companion.
These pieces speak to a story of loss and of growth—of what remains after absence reshapes us. I hope that those who have lived alongside grief can see themselves reflected here, and feel both seen and understood in its quiet beauty.
My parents supported me deeply in my artistic life, and this exhibition is dedicated to them. I lost my father two years ago, and my mother seven years before that. When the weight of loss becomes too heavy to hold, I turn inward through my art. In those moments of deep immersion & creation has carried me forward—it has, in many ways, saved me.
Artist Bio:
Sandi Calistro is a Denver-based artist working across painting, tattooing, and murals. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, and raised in the wooded landscapes of western Maine, her relationship with art has unfolded over a lifetime. At fifteen, she painted signs for local businesses and began exploring tattooing—early gestures toward a practice rooted in both craft and storytelling.
Years later, after establishing a well-known tattooing career, her focus turned more fully toward painting and the exhibition of fine art. Her work centers on the female figure as vessel and symbol, weaving themes of the sacred feminine and humanity’s enduring bond with the natural world. These figures inhabit dreamlike realms where tattoo iconography, religious imagery, and pop culture converge, forming intimate narratives that exist somewhere between memory, myth, and reverie.
