Viola Leddi, Pupille
Viola Leddi, Pupille
From October 11th 2024 to January 12th 2025
Exhibition opening October 10th at 6 p.m.
Curator of the exhibition: Marie Griffay
FRAC Champagne-Ardenne is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in France of the artist Viola Leddi. This exhibition at FRAC brings together brand new works by Viola Leddi. For this invitation, the artist explores the etymological definition of the word ‘pupil’, in reference to the processes of self-perception in relation to the gaze of others.
Viola Leddi’s work questions the power structures at play in the representation of women’s bodies in Italian and more broadly Western art, culture and society. Her paintings and sculptures explore the concept of femininity and the ambivalent relationship between the coercive process of identifying with certain stereotypes and the desire to subvert them. Her recent work focuses on the notion of gender in horror and gothic films, mobilising motifs such as haunted domestic space, insomnia, the duality of death and love, mental disorders and self-narration.
Born in Milan in 1993, Viola Leddi lives and works between Milan and Geneva. She graduated in 2022 from the Fine Art School HEAD - Geneva in Contemporary Artistic Practices, following a degree in Fine Art with a major in painting from the Brera Academy in Milan and a year at the School of Painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Recent solo exhibitions include Strategies for Invisibility, VIN VIN Gallery (Naples, 2022); I Saw Stars Turn into Dark Coals, Pace Gallery (Geneva, 2023); Lovable Creatures, TILE project space (Milan, 2019). She has taken part in several group exhibitions, including Italian Painting Today, Triennale di Milano (Milan, 2023); Madrigale, VIN VIN Vienna (Naples, 2022); From Submersion to Subversion, Palazzina (Basel, 2021). In 2022 she was awarded the Théodore Stravinsky Foundation Prize by HEAD - Geneva and the Galerie Prize by HEAD - Geneva, for her solo exhibition at the Pace Gallery. Viola Leddi is represented by VIN VIN Vienna.
Exhibition made with the support of Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council.
Acknowledgements:
Glassmaker: Vetroricerca Studios Bolzano
Jeweller: Elisa Machado Vendeiro
Painting assistants: Kelechi Amaka Madumere and Melissa Steenman