I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong (Boon Wurrung) peoples of the Kulin Nation whose land I live and work on and pay my respects to Elders both past and present, their culture and continued connection to Country.
Leyla Stevens is an Australian-Balinese artist who works predominately within an expanded documentary and lens-based practice. Her work is informed by ongoing engagements with storied places, archives, cultural geographies and performance lineages through a transcultural lens. As research led artist, she is guided by collaborative engagements with place and communities, and her interest lies in the recuperation of counter histories within dominant narratives. Recent projects have addressed issues of cultural preservation and restitution as she works closely with Balinese ancestral objects displaced by colonial collection practices.
In 2021 Leyla was awarded the prestigious 66th Blake Art Prize for her film, Kidung (2019) that engages with Bali’s histories of political violence. Her work has been exhibited widely through major national and international group exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, TarraWarra Museum, UQ Art Museum, Artspace Sydney, West Space, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Guangdong Times Museum and Seoul Museum of Art. Recent commissions include: PAHIT MANIS, Night Forest (2024), a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; GROH GOH, Rehearsal for Rangda (2023) for the TarraWarra Biennial 2023 and the 17th Jogja Biennale; and Patiwangi, the death of fragrance (2021) for The National 2021: New Australian Art.
Leyla has been the recipient of multiple arts grants for the development of new work, including a VACS Major Commissioning Project through Creative Australia. Her works are held in major public collections including Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of NSW and Kadist. She lives and works between Naarm/Melbourne and Bali, Indonesia.
An Artist CV can be downloaded here.