Leah Patgorski is a Pittsburgh-based artist who was born in Virginia Beach, VA. She earned a degree in Architecture at the University of Virginia followed by an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Drawing on a background in architecture and landscape architecture, she develops contextual textile installations for interiors as well as smaller sculptural works. Her work advocates for a connection to other humans and to history that natural fibers and colors can provide. She is particularly interested in plant-derived hues, seeking the resonance of subtle color variations within explorations of abstract form. She views the handmade and the hand-dyed as antidotes to the homogenization of architecture and of culture, which in her opinion is an unsavory trend.
Leah is also part of a collective with two other women who work together on the Other Border Wall Project, an ongoing creative resistance against harmful border practices. Their work has been supported by grants from Opportunity Fund and The Pittsburgh Foundation, and their work has been exhibited at Flatland Gallery in Houston, TX.
She has collaborated on projects with other artists including Michelle Litvin and Wafaa Bilal, and with design firms including Formwork and Studio Lithe. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with venues including the Strohl Arts Center in Chautauqua, NY; ADDS DONNA in Chicago, IL; SWDZ in Vienna, Austria; the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA, and Assemble in Pittsburgh, PA.
The book mentioned in the interview is Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.