ABOUT
Artist Statement
Lesley Bodzy is a multimedia artist based in New York City and Houston. Her work explores how materiality can give form and visibility to complex psychological experiences. The artist engages with textures and materials like resin, silicone, latex, acrylic, bronze, and 3D printing. She allows their malleability and resistance to point her toward a subject matter that emerges as a personal and meditative language. Delicate, raw, and resistant surfaces create new associations and challenge assumptions around expressions of vulnerability, restraint, and strength.
Taking cues from pioneers of abstraction of the 1970s, like Linda Benglis and Eva Hess, Bodzy pursues compositions that highlight her interest in the imperfect and often blur the categories of relief, sculpture, and painting. These minimalist tendencies are often counterpointed by bold colors that dramatize each piece to draw attention to what is concealed or barely perceptible in our lives.
Artist Bio
Lesley Bodzy holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BA from Mount Holyoke College, and a law degree from NYU. She also studied art at Hunter College and the Art Students League of New York. Her work is represented by galleries in Houston and New York, and has been exhibited widely across the United States and abroad. Past exhibitions include Future Fair 2025, NYC, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NYC, Space 776, NYC, The Painting Center, NYC, M. David & Co., Brooklyn, 5-50 Gallery, Brooklyn, SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC 2022, ChaShaMa, NYC, Holy Art Gallery in London, UK, Site:Brooklyn, Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, NY, the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT, the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA, and the Meadows Gallery in Tyler, TX. Recent press includes Flaunt, White Hot Magazine, Art Houston Magazine, Cultbytes, Art Fuse, and Art Spiel.
Endorsments
Dr. Giovanni Aloi
Associate Professor and Author
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
"In Lesley Bodzy’s work, histories of fleeting and yet defining everyday traumas appear crystallized - finally visible and tangible, these psychological fragments can be acknowledged, confronted, and exorcised. Beautifully executed work with a deep, psychological dimension at its core."
"Lesley Bodzy has astounded us with her impressive skill and style. She has tenaciously explored new styles and mediums. Folds of Desire is composed of free-standing sculptures, wall pieces and installations. Each piece represents a moment or a period where the traditional utility of acrylic paint has been exhausted and thus transforms into a 3-dimensional object of observation and reflection. The predominant color gold is an eye wink to the Rococo period as an element of seduction. Pleats and undulations mimicking the folds of satin or skin create Folds of Desire."
Sam Adams
Art Historian and Koch Curatorial Fellow DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
"Wrapped and evocatively finished, Lesley Bodzy's luxe assemblages belie their material composition."
Tess Lojacono
Chief Executive Officer
Fine Art Miracles, Inc. Pittsburgh, PA
"Your work has a unique depth one doesn't often see."
Jay Youngdahl
Independent Curator
"For the viewer, Bodzy’s works are thought-provoking. She traverses the line between conceptual and aesthetic art. Art that can pique our curiosity and remind us of beauty, is a gift worth unwrapping."
Robert Langdon
Curator
Emerge Gallery Saugerties, NY
"Lesley Bodzy’s sculptures are made of unique materials. She applies pure paint to unconventional surfaces, like foam, aluminum, and plexiglass, offering a fresh perspective."
D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem
Associate Professor
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
"Your gold feminist works are powerful and spark synesthetic feelings, sensations that are hard to put into words. I wish I could wear one like a cloak down a monumental corridor.”