ACCA is pleased to present a solo exhibition by acclaimed Australian-Balinese artist Leyla Stevens that brings together new and past works that engage with storied places, archives, cultural geographies and performance lineages through a transcultural lens.
Through her work Stevens’ considers how culture moves between contexts, with inspiration and reflections often drawn from her lived experiences, observations and research. Moving from Sydney to Melbourne in late-2025, while continuing to visit and engage with familial and wider communities in Bali, Stevens’ practice is guided by collaborative engagements with place and community.
She works between and across documentary and speculative modes to engage with and foreground counter histories within dominant narratives. Grounded in a lens-based practice, her work incorporates photography, moving image, performance and a growing integration of sculptural elements.
Leyla Stevens’ solo exhibition is presented concurrently with Inma Ungu by renowned Australian singer from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, Zaachariaha Fielding, making for a dynamic exhibition season of Australian solo exhibitions at ACCA.
Curated by: Dr Shelley McSpedden.
About the artist:
Leyla Stevens (b. 1982, Cooroy, QLD) lives and works in Melbourne, Victoria, and Bali, Indonesia.
Leyla Stevens has exhibited at major institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), UQ Art Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Artspace Sydney and the Campbelltown Arts Centre all in New South Wales; West Space in Melbourne; the Guangdong Times Museum in China and Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) in South Korea, among others. Recent film commissions include PAHIT MANIS, Night Forest(2024) for the AGNSW, Contemporary Project series; GROH GOH, Rehearsal for Rangda (2023) for the 2023 TarraWarra Biennial and the 17th Jogja Biennale; and Patiwangi, the death of fragrance (2021) for The National 2021: New Australian Art.
She has also been the recipient of many prestigious awards and grants including the 66th Blake Art Prize (2021) for her film Kidung; and a VACS Major Commissioning Project through Creative Australia. In 2021 Dr Lelya Stevens was awarded a Doctor of Creative Arts, University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for her paper Thesis: Afterimages: Constructing a counter-archive of south Bali histories through moving image and furthermore awarded the FASS Highly Recommended Thesis.