CV

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 with a concentration in Critical Studies from Goldsmiths in London, UK. As an art student in the United States, 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 was the recipient of the Albert F. Schenck-Henry Gillette Woodman Award for landscape design and the Christopher Lyon Memorial Award for the arts.

She has worked as a designer with leading landscape architecture offices in Seattle, Zürich, and Vancouver.

Public Art

2021 The Dream Canoe, (42'x7.5' mural), YMCA Wanakita; Haliburton, ON
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

Grants & Artist Residencies

2021 Canada Council for the Arts; Building Conservation Networks: Root Logic
2014 Banff Centre for the Arts, grant and residency (March)
2013 Vermont Studio Center, residency (Dec)

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