Biography

Ella Leidy is an interdisciplinary artist who works in found object, photograph, and textile sculpture. She was raised in rural North Dakota, where her early understanding of gender and sexuality set the foundation for her artistic practice. Leidy is now based in the Twin Cities. Here, her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Second Shift Studio Space, the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Center, and across the University of Minnesota campus. During her time pursuing a BFA at the University of Minnesota, Leidy’s work earned her both the Wayne and Virginia Potratz Scholarship and the Gay Grossman Memorial Scholarship. 

Statement

My practice is a reflection on the social stereotypes, cultural beliefs, and political rhetoric surrounding gender and sexuality in the United States. I explore the realities of womanhood and queerness and their intersection through the lens of my own lived experiences in the American Midwest. My upbringing in rural North Dakota is central to my practice as I reckon with feelings of isolation and otherness as a queer child through the use of familiar found objects. Drawing both on memory and materiality, I combine these objects with craft processes to weave my experiences into broader narratives of gender and sexuality throughout history.