STUDIOS 3026 NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

By Sam Spiegel

Leila Youssefi is an Iranian-American fine artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores cultural identity, environmental storytelling, and collective futures. Her work spans painting and public art, often rooted in research and community engagement.

When I sat down with Leila, I expected a conversation about the four paintings she is preparing for the Under One Roof gallery opening at Airport Studios 3026 on February 22. What I walked away with was a deeper understanding of Leila and the presence of duality, and its unyielding reflection, in her artwork.

Her presence mirrors her canvases: bold, immediate, and layered with meaning. Whether large or small, her work commands attention. It’s current and edgy, yet carries a depth that remains long after leaving her studio.

She is currently preparing four small paintings for Under One Roof. The unfinished works are modest in scale, but they carry the ghost of something larger. They began as informal studies: painting sketches made without any expectation of exhibition. Now, those early explorations have been identified as essential to the show by curator Peter Frank.

 “They came out of play and discovery,” Leila explained. “I’m continuing them with the same ethos, tuning in and seeing where they want me to take them.”

Progress, for Leila, is rarely linear. She described a familiar rhythm: long stretches of uncertainty followed by brief moments of clarity. Paintings that feel nearly complete can shift dramatically in their final days.

Seasonal shifts also influence her practice, even in Los Angeles, where winter is more symbolic than climatic. She pays attention to cultural rhythms -- the longer nights and quieter spaces that allow reflection. “It doesn’t feel like winter in California,” she said. “But cosmically, it’s winter. The nights are longer. There’s less noise. When there’s less noise, it’s easier to hear what’s trying to come through.”

This attentiveness informs recurring themes in her work: duality, integration, and wholeness. She doesn’t see duality as a problem to solve, but as a condition to inhabit. “A lot of my recent work is about duality,” she said. “And about integrating that duality.” For her, this is less a concept than a lived process: confronting shadow, finding light, and allowing both to coexist. Inner Union, Leila’s painting currently exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum, embodies this philosophy. “By seeing the Self soberly – as one might empty out the contents of their purse to examine, reorganize, and release – we transmute what would otherwise like to remain hidden. This act of integrating our dissonant parts returns us to unity,” she said.