Featured Artist

LeRoy Neiman was born of Turkish and Swedish parents on June 8, 1921, taking the surname of his first stepfather. He  grew up in a St. Paul, Minnesota neighborhood where he earned money from local grocers by painting calcimine (a mixture of zinc oxide, glue, and water with pigment) images on fruit, vegetables, meat, and shop windows.

In 1942, Neiman quit high school and enlisted in the U.S. Army. While serving as a cook he painted murals in military kitchens and dining halls. He also painted stage sets for Red Cross shows under the Army’s Special Services division.

Early in his career, Neiman began teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a post he kept for ten years. He was awarded first prize in the Twin City show for an oil painting, “Idle Boats,” in 1953. He had his first solo shows in galleries in Chicago and Lincoln, Illinois that same year.

In the early ‘50s, Neiman was freelancing for a Chicago department store and made the acquaintance of Hugh Hefner, a copywriter there. For 15 years beginning in 1958, Neiman was a contributing artist and writer for “Man at His Leisure” in Playboy magazine.