Info
Currently finalizing her first book, A Home is a Portal, she investigates definitions of home through a multidisciplinary lens. Her artistic practice evolved from early work in illustration, where collaborations with cultural institutions enriched her understanding of visual storytelling and informed her current multimedia approach.
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CV
Education
2025 / Post-graduate year / Royal Drawing School / London, UK (upcoming)
2023 / MFA / Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design / Stockholm, Sweden
2018 / Continuing studies / Pratt Institute / Brooklyn, NY, USA
2013 / BA / University of British Columbia / Vancouver, BC, Canada
Select exhibitions
2024
VITAL SIGNS: another world is possible, The Science Gallery, London, UK (currently on view)
The Collective II, Visionary Projects, New York City, US (currently on view)
Mine, Yours, Ours, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, US
Transcending Time, The Arts Society, Nerja, ES
2023
Kairos, Samsen Atelier, Stockholm, SE (solo)
A Home is a Portal, Körsbärsgården Konsthall, Burgsvik, SE (solo)
Lugares, PTM Contemporary (NY Latin American Art Triennial), New York, US
HOY, National Museum of Somalia, Mogadishu, SO
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Konstfack University, Stockholm, SE
Experiments in Print, Candyland, Stockholm, SE
2020
DULA: Tastes Like Home, TIER, Berlin, DE
2019
Cluster Illustration Fair, The Truman Brewery, London, UK
Grants, residencies & other achievements
2024
One year working grant, The Swedish Writers' Fund
Longlisted, World Illustration Awards
Shortlisted, Villa Lena Foundation Residency
One year working grant, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Studio grant, City of Stockholm
2023
Shortlisted, Ung Svensk Form (Swedish Art & Design Award)
Exhibition grant, The National Association of Swedish Art Societies
Award, Konstfacks Foundation
Project grant, Beata Brummers Foundation
Project grant, Ulla Fröberg-Cramérs Foundation
2022
Jury, Young Guns 20, The One Club for Creativity
2020
Grant, Choose Democracy
2018
Illustrator in Residence, The Other Art Fair: Brooklyn
Fellow in Fiction (residency), Lambda Literary Foundation
Artist talks
2024 Artist talk, Hem, Sunday Sessions (Stockholm, SE)
2023 Artist talk, A Home is a Portal, Östberga Kulturhus (Stockholm, SE)
2023 Artist talk, A Home is a Portal, Körsbärsgården Konsthall (Burgsvik, SE)
2019 Artist Talk, Roxy Times Square (New York City, US)
Select press
2024 / “Featured Artist: Ludi Leiva” Artists Responding To... Quarterly Magazine, edited by Polly Bates
2024 / “Ludi Leiva’s A Home is a Portal” The One Club for Creativity, written by Alixandra Rutnik
2023 / “Signs from the Underground, Home Invasion and Textile Bliss” C-Print Journal, written by Ashik & Koshik Zaman
2020 / "How Can Illustration Be Used as an Effective Tool for Activism?" Elephant Magazine, written by Ayla Angelos
Artist statement
I approach my work as a spiritual act, a way to transmute my subconscious into physical form. My work intertwines the real with the ethereal, creating dreamlike realms through themes of place, ritual, identity, and the in-between. Working in combined media, I primarily use acrylic and oil paint, oil pastel, oil bar, charcoal, and pencil, as well as monotype techniques to build layered textures. Intuitive mark-making allows me to translate internal states, memories, and dreams, blending abstraction and figuration to explore nostalgia, liminal space, and diasporic identity. Drawing further inspiration from ecology and metaphysics, my work reifies the tension between inner and outer worlds while reconceptualizing my intercultural identity, ancestral knowledge, connection to place, and sense of self.