More recently, Leiva has extended this visual language onto canvas. Working with oil and watercolour, she builds luminous surfaces through veils of colour and expressive, instinctive mark-making. The greater scale and physicality of canvas allow her imagined landscapes to unfold more expansively, while retaining the delicacy and quiet ambiguity of her works on paper. Across both mediums, Leiva approaches materials as collaborators, responding to each image as it emerges rather than imposing a predetermined conclusion.

Dreams provide a further source of imagery. Leiva has kept a dream journal for many years, recording the unusual landscapes, encounters and altered geographies that remain with her upon waking. Rather than illustrating these experiences literally, she draws upon their atmosphere and emotional residue. The resulting works occupy a liminal space between the internal and external worlds, inviting viewers into scenes shaped as much by feeling as by place.

Ludi Leiva (b. 1990) is a Canadian-American artist of Guatemalan and Slovak heritage who lives and works in Stockholm. She holds an MFA in Visual Communication from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design and completed a one-year programme at the Royal Drawing School, London. In 2024, Leiva received a working grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. She has exhibited internationally in London, Stockholm, New York, Chicago and Mogadishu. Recent presentations include RHODES Editions at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in 2025 and What the Surface Holds at RHODES in 2026. Leiva also participated in the Turps Summer Intensive and its concluding exhibition at Turps Gallery, London, in 2026.