Biography

Ella Leidy (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and sculptor who works with found objects, textiles, and photographs. Raised in North Dakota and now based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, her work explores how traditions shape identity in the rural Midwest. Leidy received her BFA in fine art from the University of Minnesota, where her work earned her both the Wayne and Virginia Potratz Scholarship and the Gay Grossman Memorial Scholarship. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions across the Twin Cities and in print nationally via Peters Valley School of Craft and Photo Trouvée Magazine. Leidy is currently a resident artist at Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul, where her year-long residency will culminate in a solo exhibition in July 2026.

Statement

My work explores the emotional and cultural landscapes of the rural Midwest through found objects, textiles, and photographs. I recontextualize these familiar forms through processes of disassembly and reconstruction, engaging with both the personal and collective histories that are embedded within them. Through this cyclical process, I examine how tradition can be simultaneously cherished and unsettled. Conservation and modification coexist: nothing remains untouched, yet nothing is entirely erased.

Domestic craft practices are central to this process of reimagining found materials. Techniques like sewing, quilting, and crochet are commonplace in rural communities, homes, and families like my own. By engaging these techniques, I position craft as a site of generational knowledge and embodied ritual that connect my work to rich histories of craftsmanship with each stitch. My work is both an extension and an evolution of that lineage. This approach balances preservation and reinvention to explore the intersection of past, present, and future through the reinterpretation of recognizable techniques and materials.