Leyla Faye uses painting as a meditation to explore moments of wholeness within hyphenated identity. Inspired by ideas of metamorphosis and shape-shifting, Faye employs mundane and discarded materials, which she transforms into textural landscapes and psychic environments. The figures in her narratives balance explorations of performance and belonging, in an attempt to merge the fictional boundaries of their realities.

Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Theft of Fire, Company Gallery, New York (2026); Trema, Karma International, Zürich (2024); A Requiem for Benevolent Beasts, Lindon & Co., London (2023); and Trust Fall, Company Gallery, New York (2023). She has participated in group exhibitions at Adler Beatty, New York; Karma International, Zürich; Lyles & King, New York; and Almine Rech, Brussels. Her work is held in the collections of the X Museum, Beijing, and Muzeum Susch, Zernez, Switzerland. Faye received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2021. Her work is held in the collections of the X Museum, Beijing, and Muzeum Susch, Zernez, Switzerland. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Faye lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.