AMAA Honorary Professors

Contemporary artist Leo Stopfer had his first personal exhibition in one of the galleries of the Austrian district Hollabrunn at the age of 18. Since that time, his work has been exhibited all around Europe, including London, Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, Luxembourg, Côte d’Azur.

An important chapter in his career began in 2011 when the painter was inspired by the performance of two ballerinas — Ketevan Papava and Marie-Claire D’Lyse in the ballet ‚Bella Figura‘ in the Vienna State Opera. The dancing bodies fascinated him, initiating a new creative union. Leo Stopfer made the ballet one of the main themes of his art, and became known as “the painter of the ballet-stars”.

Cooperating with many outstanding dancers for several years he created plenty of paintings depicting the greatest ballerinas of the 20-21 centuries. Among them are such grandees of the world ballet scene as Diana Vishneva (the Mariinsky Theatre), Olga Smirnova and Evgenia Obraztsova (Bolshoi Theatre), Vladimir Malakhov (State Ballet of Berlin), Maria Abashova (Ballet Theatre of Boris Eifman), Maria Yakovleva (Vienna State Ballet), Isabelle Ciaravola and Ludmila Pagliero (Opera de Paris) and Julie Kent and Alessandra Ferri (ABT New York).

Almost 10 years later, Leo Stopfer had a big honor to expose his artworks created in collaboration with the ballet dancers of the Vienna State Opera in the Opera House. His personal exhibition „Förderpreisträger und Ehrenmitglieder des Ballettclubs, Stars des Wiener Staatsballetts“ took place at the Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper) from November 2019 till February 2020.

It is also noteworthy that Leo Stopfer was the first artist to receive the honor of being invited by the KLIMT VILLA in 2017 to work in the original studio where the great master Klimt lived and worked.