CV

Lesia Mokrycke is an interdisciplinary sculptor, environmental artist and landscape designer who works intuitively with visual, sound, and model-making processes to create site-specific works that visualize phenomena, raising awareness about the constructed nature of the built environment in relation to the atmosphere, and plants. In studying natural systems, Lesia’s work explores how we experience and relate to the environment, creating immersive installations that reimagine relationships between the body, earth, and movement to choreograph physical spaces. Her large-scale design works draw on history, memory and time to organize geographic landscapes, while focusing on issues of cultural identity in contemporary culture. Lesia's design work is characterized by an interest in plants, issues of water, climate, and large-scale restoration.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Lesia has degrees in Landscape Architecture and Art from the Design School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she combined her studio art practice with landscape architecture.

She has a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she studied art history, film, and comparative literature and was formally trained in drawing, painting, and sculpture. At the Academy, she was the recipient of the Sylvia G. Wexler Memorial Award, the Rambourger Prize, the Lance Roy Lauffer Memorial Prize, the Faculty Award, and the Scheidt Travel Scholarship.

Lesia has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. At the Weitzman School of Design, she is the recipient of the Albert F. Schenck-Henry Gillette Woodman Award for landscape design and the Christopher Lyon Memorial Award for the arts.

Design

2021 Landscape Designer, OMC Landscape Architecture; Hamilton, ON (Oct'18)
Projects: McMaster University Feasibility Study for Central Mall; College of Nurses Ontario, Toronto Campus design; Halton District School Board

2018 Landscape Designer, Vogt Landscape Architects; Zürich, Switzerland (Mar-Aug). Projects: Zürich Private Residence

2017 Landscape Designer + Artist, Hapa Collaborative; Vancouver, BC (Sept-Feb'18). Projects: Steveston Nikkei Internment Memorial, artist; Northeast False Creek Urban Design Study; Montreal Design Competition

2017 Landscape Designer (contract), Space2Place; Vancouver, BC (Jul-Aug).
Projects: East Fraser Lands Park, design

2016 Design Intern, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Landscape Architects; Seattle, WA
(Aug-May'17). Projects: Civic Park at Hemisfair; Smith Cove Park; Seattle Residence; REI Headquarters; Exhibition design for Shannon Nichol's lecture, Repair Works

Public Art

2020 Gates, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Pleats, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2018 Steveston Nikkei Internment Memorial, with Hapa Collaborative; Vancouver, BC
2012 Chõros, Nuit Blanche (multimedia installation), Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto; ON
2011 Les Arbres, (site-specific mural 12’ x 80’); Washington, DC (area)
2009 Welcome House, Design Philadelphia, artist assistant to Linda Brenner; Phila., PA
2007 Cathedral Grove, (mural, 50’ x 50’), McCallum Sather Architects; Hamilton, ON

Selected Exhibitions

2021 Double Feature, Crane Arts, Icebox; Philadelphia, PA
2017 Landscape / Soundscape, Arthur Ross Gallery; Philadelphia, PA
2016 Traversals, New Boone Gallery; Philadelphia, PA
2016 Infomation, Charles Addams Fine Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2014 51 10' 28.606" N, 115 34' 22.0152" W, The Banff Centre for the Arts; Banff, AB
2014 To the Earth, with Love, Artscape Wychwood Barnes (solo exhibition); Toronto, ON
2013 Timeraiser, Art Gallery of Hamilton; Hamilton, ON
2012 Wallflower, Gallery on James (solo exhibition); Hamilton, ON
2012 Spring, Art Gallery of Hamilton; Hamilton, ON
2009 ASE, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum; Philadelphia, PA
2008 ASE, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum; Philadelphia, PA

Residency Programs

2014 Banff Centre for the Arts; Banff, AB; March
2013 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; November

Public Talks + Symposiums

2018 Local Colour: A View into Landscape Architecture, The Cotton Factory. Sponsored by OMC Landscape Architecture; Hamilton, ON Dec. 20

2013 The Readymade in Contemporary Practice, Nuit Blanche 2013
Talk and urban tour; Toronto, ON Oct 5

2013 Contemporary World Cinema: Why Movies Are Better Than Ever, TIFF Lightbox at Festival Tower; Toronto, ON Sept 28. Panelist: Professor Timothy Corrigan, University of Pennsylvania. Curated & organized by L Mokrycke with Penn-Wharton TO

2013 Art and Practice, Art Gallery of Burlington; Burlington, ON. Jan 13

2012 Contemporary Art in Public Places, Royal Ontario Museum; Toronto, ON May 10. Panelists: Jane Perdue, Public Art Coordinator for the City of Toronto, Shirley Madill, Nuit Blanche Curator 2011, Lesia Mokrycke. In partnership with ICC ROM & Penn-Wharton TO

Awards

2019 Christopher Lyon Memorial Scholarship, fine arts alumni committee,
University of Pennsylvania
2015 Albert F. Schenck-Henry Gillette Woodman Award, landscape design,
University of Pennsylvania
2009 J. Henry Schiedt Travel Scholarship, European travel and study,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2009 Faculty Award, outstanding achievement,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2008 Lance Roy Lauffer Memorial Prize, for most expressive abstract painting,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2007 Sylvia G. Wexler Memorial Award, excellence in painting,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2006 Rambourger Prize, best draftsmanship,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Scholarships & Grants

2014 Banff Centre for the Arts
2005 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Recent Teaching

Curious Landscapes, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Landscape Architecture; Instructors: Sean Burkholder; Yang Du. Sept 2020

Figure Drawing, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Fine Art;
Instructor: Jotham Malave-Maldonado. Jan 2020

Painting Studio, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Fine Art;
Instructor: Jackie Tileson. Sept 2019

Paris Modern Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Fine Art;
Instructors: Ken Lum & Jean-Michel Rabaté. Jan 2019

Education

University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design; Philadelphia, PA
Master of Landscape Architecture 2021 + Master of Fine Art 2020

University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences; Philadelphia, PA 2011
Bachelor of Fine Arts: Major in Art History, Minor in Comparative Literature cum laude

Goldsmiths, University of London, Faculty of Art; London, England, UK Sept-Dec 2010
Attended a Study Abroad program: Studio Art and Critical Studies First Class Honors

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Philadelphia, PA 2009
Combined BFA with the University of Pennsylvania: Certificate in Painting: intensive training in art history, theory, and studio practice cum laude

Service & Associations

2021 Hamilton Naturalists Club
2021 North American Native Plant Society
2021 ASLA Associate Member
2021-2011 Penn-Wharton Alumni Club of Toronto; Alumni Interview Committee
2006-2002 YMCA Wanakita