Frankie Daniel, is shown here in an Leftbank Art’s Atlanta showroom in 2024.
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. – Frankie Daniel, the creative director of Leftbank Art for the past 15 years, has joined Uttermost, where he will manage a new Uttermost art studio in southern California to create unique and exclusive art for Uttermost and its sister brand, Revelation.
Two other Leftbank artists, brothers Josh Leiva and Dennis Leiva, will also join Uttermost. They have a long history of producing some of the top-selling art in the industry, according to Uttermost, as well as years of Gallery Exhibitions.
Wall art accounts for roughly 8% of Uttermost’s revenue, but has a long runway for growth, according to President Mac Cooper.
“We think the opportunity to grow our art business is huge,” he told Home Accents Today. “In the past couple of years, Revelation has been focused more on working directly with artists on exclusive art, which has proven very successful. With Frankie, Josh and Dennis on board full-time, we can achieve growth in this category much faster. The art category is strong, as it’s an easy category to freshen up a room or make a home more personal without the costs of a total room redo.
“Our art offering has been smaller than it should be, and development of great new art has been slower than I would like,” Cooper added. “While it’s been successful, the relationships with new artists takes time to develop.”
In addition to being an artist, Daniel has spent his career successfully leading creative teams, Uttermost said. “Josh and Dennis are two of the most prolific artists in our industry, and their impact will be big in our future introductions,” said Cooper in a release.
Uttermost’s new art studio, situated in California near the company’s Moreno Valley distribution center and close to where the artists live, will complement the existing creative talents at both Uttermost and Revelation, Uttermost said. The art studio will be up and running next month, according to Cooper.
“Under Frankie’s leadership, the art studio will be focused on creation, not production,” he said. “Currently, we produce our art in both the U.S. and overseas, and this will continue.”
Uttermost, which does business in most major retail channels as well as in hospitality, has had success with its artwork assortment across genres, said Cooper. Landscapes and botanicals are among its strongest subjects. “We continue to do well with oversized abstracts, but more tone-on-tone colors,” he said. “In terms of sizes, we do very well with smaller art, in sets of 6, sets of 9, and even sets of 12. On the other hand, oversized art is always strong for us. We ship our art with our other product categories like furniture, so the challenges of shipping oversized art is more manageable.”
Upon joining the company, Daniel said, “We’re building work that feels alive — art with atmosphere, edge, and impact. The goal is to create pieces people don’t just see but feel.”
