Roby
Ross Leondiou
- Sitter: Roby Curtis
- Medium: Oil on Board
- Dimensions: 60cm x 80cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
About the artwork
In 2026, Roby Curtis walked 2700 kilometres from Brisbane to Alice Springs to raise funds for homelessness support. It was, he said, just an extension of what he does every day. Curtis is the founder of Emmanuel City Mission (ECM) in South Brisbane, where 200 people a week find meals, showers, laundry and something harder to measure, a sense of belonging and dignity. A 2025 Queensland Australian of the Year nominee, he has spent sixteen years dedicating his life to those on the margins.
Artist Ross Leondiou has volunteered at ECM for seven years and knows Curtis not through headlines but through his quiet, consistent presence and selflessness. Every conversation returned to the people Curtis serves, never to himself. Rather than portraying hardship, Leondiou wanted to paint the hope that grows from it. In this portrait Curtis stands holding a young sapling toward the viewer, a symbol of renewal and growth.
About the artist
Ross Leondiou is a Brisbane-based painter whose work explores the human condition through gestural, expressive portraiture. Before painting, he worked in fashion and photography, receiving a major US editorial photography award in 1997 for concept and styling, with his work featured in Rolling Stone and on billboards across the United States. He studied under Persian born artist Saloumeh Mehdi before continuing as a painter.
