Viola Leddi on Painting, Femininity, and the Body
Viola Leddi, born in 1993 in Milan, currently splits her time between Milan and Geneva while enrolled in the Work.Master program at HEAD. She previously studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and participated in an Erasmus exchange at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Her recent exhibitions include shows at TILE Project Space in Milan and Sonnenstube in Lugano. In 2017, she co-founded Altalena, where she organizes artist residencies and publishes books. Leddi began her painting journey in 2014, focusing on the interplay of form and meaning, with abstraction seen as a tangible experience. Her ceramic works challenge patriarchal depictions of women's bodies, and her artistic approach is characterized by a limited color palette and custom canvas sizes, often utilizing digital tools in a slow process.
Key facts
- Viola Leddi was born in Milan in 1993.
- She lives and works between Milan and Geneva.
- She attends the Work.Master program at HEAD in Geneva.
- She studied at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera with an Erasmus at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
- She co-founded the research project Altalena in 2017.
- Her recent exhibitions include Sonnenstube, Lugano; Q-Rated: Pittura, Nuoro; TILE Project Space, Milan; ADA Project, Rome.
- She began painting seriously during her exchange in Copenhagen in 2014.
- She uses digital scanning and projection in her painting process.
- Her sculpture is primarily in ceramics.
- She describes her 'adorable creatures' as victims and executioners of patriarchal and capitalist body conceptions.
- Her work reflects on growing up in Berlusconi's Italy.
- She prefers custom-sized canvases and uses oil, acrylic, and raw cotton.
- Her painting process is very slow.
- She currently works in a studio at HEAD in Geneva.
Entities
Artists
- Viola Leddi
Institutions
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
- Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
- HEAD
- Sonnenstube
- Q-Rated: Pittura
- TILE Project Space
- ADA Project
- Altalena
Locations
- Milan
- Italy
- Geneva
- Switzerland
- Copenhagen
- Denmark
- Lugano
- Nuoro
- Rome