Leah Guadagnoli

Incorporating elements of sculpture, painting, graphic design, and architecture, Leah Guadagnoli’s whimsical, idiosyncratic works defy easy classification. The artist’s work expands on the Pop tradition by making use of readymade imagery and quotidian materials. Often drawing on the aesthetics of her Midwestern upbringing, the artist appropriates designs and patterns from the 1980s and ’90s—often considered kitschy—presenting them in fresh and dynamic ways. Guadagnoli’s creations are inherently accessible, referencing public spaces such as waiting rooms, movie theatres, bus seats, and casinos. A clear aesthetic descendant of Ruth Root and the Memphis Group, Guadagnoli reinterprets this imagery through a lens that is both nostalgic and forward-looking. Her work strikes a balance between hard-edged geometrical precision and free-form patterns. The result has a certain levity, as disparate materials transform and come together.

Though the artist’s constructions often make use of prints and patterns that exist within an established design tradition, the fabrics are not themselves vintage—she uses Illustrator to digitally design and then hand-prints them. Her process brings together painted pumice stone, Plexiglass, acrylic-painted canvas, and geometric textiles wrapped around foam insulation. Here the source materials are removed from their utilitarian origins and deconstructed both physically and conceptually. In bringing together heterogeneous materials and imagery, Guadagnoli breaks down our associations of how these objects should function. Though these media come together harmoniously, the existence of their individual properties is emphasized; this visibility of the process and composition stands in sharp contrast to the industrial, mass-produced, and mass-consuming society for which these objects and images were intended.

Guadagnoli received a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed her M.F.A. at Rutgers University in 2014. She has been in numerous group shows and solo presentations, most recently including Asya Gesiberg Gallery, New York in 2019 and Victori + Mo Gallery in Brooklyn in 2018. Guadagnoli is also dedicated to arts education and was a part-time lecturer at the Mason Gross School of Art in New Jersey, and founder of the Maple Terrace Artist Residency and Mentorship Program in New York City. She lives and works in New York State’s Hudson Valley.