ARTIST STATEMENT

Ley is an abstract figurative artist working with acrylics and a range of printmaking techniques to address questions of identity, belonging, vulnerability, risk, and acceptance. Although Ley is not formally trained, she took many classes in studio and history of art while an undergraduate – including drawing, painting, color theory, sculpture, and illustration – and has continued to expand her skills through local and online classes, videos, and books.

Incorporating influences from artists such as Henri Matisse, Hyangmok Baik, Egon Schiele, and NC-based Reneesha Mccoy, Ley uses the body as a symbolic language to describe emotional, familial, and psychological experiences and influences. Ley is particularly interested in how our bodies and identities and the ways others perceive them are used to confer power, limit rights, exercise control, and interrogate identity. 

Ley Killeya was born in England, travelled widely across Europe, and later settled in the northeastern United States, where she graduated from Queens College (NY) and Syracuse University, and later earned her PhD in Social Developmental Psychology from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She moved to the Triangle area with her family in 2004 and following a post-doctoral position at The Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University, has worked in various research management roles both at Duke and at UNC Chapel Hill.