Biography

Ella Leidy is an interdisciplinary artist who works in found object, photograph, and textile sculpture. She was raised in North Dakota and is now based in St. Paul, Minnesota where she is currently in her final year at the University of Minnesota pursuing a BFA in art.

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 work combines found objects with craft processes to weave these personal experiences into broader narratives of gender and sexuality throughout history. My upbringing in rural North Dakota is central to my practice as I reckon with feelings of isolation and otherness as a queer child in an overwhelmingly conservative community. Drawing both on memory and materiality, I seek to capture snapshots of intimate moments otherwise unseen.