Justin LeBlanc is a deaf and queer installation artist and fashion designer. He is an Associate Professor of Fashion Studies at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches fashion and installation design. LeBlanc’s interdisciplinary career spans installation art, fashion, textile art, architecture, and technology. LeBlanc aims to push art and education forward by combining the strengths of emerging technology like 3D printing with the traditions of the hand. His work focuses on knowledge passed down through artists and cultures on which our understandings are based. This knowledge and experience in multiple disciplines allows him to exploit and fuse different approaches, resulting in artistic expression that cannot be conveyed by one discipline alone. LeBlanc's works all explore topics and perspectives through Deaf Culture and LGTBQIA+. His works has been featured in a number of museums, publications, fashion shows, and television programs in the United States and internationally. These include Schwules Museum Berlin, Contemporary Art Museum: Raleigh, Mercedes New York Fashion Week, The Advocate, Marie Claire, Red Eye, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Face Magazine, to name a few. He has competed in two television series, Project Runway and Project Runway All Stars. LeBlanc’s undergraduate degree is in Architecture from North Carolina State University, and his Master’s Degree is in Fashion Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
