Leya Tess swims out between the islands of Art/Science and East/West. Her hyphenated (Hong Kong Chinese-Swedish-British) experience has been shaped by the wind and water of the Eastern Pacific West Coast.
She uses ink and digital drawing techniques to simultaneously conceal and highlight natural and imagined structures.
Research for her art practice has included:
-working as a portrait photographer at the Prince George Walmart
-acting as sea kayaking expedition guide
-employment as a lab monkey at an analytical lab
-engaging in direct action and activist organizing
-amateur performance wrestling with the LOLW
-perpetual wanders in the woods and waves
Her work has been shown at the fiftyfity, James Black Gallery, OR Gallery, Listhus Artist Residency. She has a BFA in Visual Art from the University of Victoria and an incomplete BSC in Biological Sciences from Thompson Rivers University.
She lives on an island in the Salish Sea and enjoys long walks on the beach with her tripod husky, Sunny.