TROPOS 

Lesia brings 15 years of experience in art practice to her work in landscape architecture, drawing on her arts-based method of inquiry to inform her urban design work at larger scales. Her work is led by an interest in water that guides her sculptural approach to shaping topography. As an artist and designer, she often employs sensory elements such as light and sound to compose physical space. Working from the intimacy of a garden to the larger scale of ecological design, her narrative interest in landscape architecture utilizes a strong commitment to materials to integrate natural systems with human experience. In each of her works, Lesia seeks to create spaces that impact the way people feel to enhance how we connect with one another in the environment.

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Lesia worked with leading landscape architecture practices in Seattle, Zürich, and Vancouver before returning to Hamilton to establish Tropos. She has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and Halls Island. In 2021, Lesia was the recipient of a Research and Creation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for her work on the urban forest.

Lesia earned a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Fine Art from the Design School at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a combined BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and UPenn with honors, where she studied painting and comparative literature. Lesia works extensively with local municipalities to develop educational content that advances public knowledge, and in 2023 she received a Concept to Realization grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to further develop her work with art and the urban forest.