Adam Leontus was born in April, 1923 into a family of nine children either in Anse-å-Galet on the island of La Gonave or in Port-au-Prince. Formerly a dockworker, he was "discovered" through wall paintings he had created in a Vodou temple in a port section of Port-au-Prince, and joined the Centre d'Art shortly thereafter in 1947. He contributed a mural depicting "The Annunciation" at the Episcopal Cathedral of Sainte Trinité in Port-au-Prince during the 1950's. He painted until his death May 1, 1986. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Musée d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Waterloo Museum of Art in Iowa, the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

from Island on Fire: Passionate Visions of Haiti from the Collection of Jonathan Demme, Edwidge Danticat, Jonathan Demme, Pebo Voss, et al., New York, 1997.