Overview
Zilla Leutenegger

From the early start of her career the focus of her artistic repertoire is the repeated discourse of space, the person in relation to space and the relation between space and light: drawings grow out of the plain and merge with sculptures and video projections into three-dimensional installations. 

In the past years, this repertoire has been increasingly extended by the monotype as a medium, through whose technique the colour surface in its intensity and combination possibility becomes the new protagonist. 
 
Leutenegger's first series of monotypes was shown in her solo exhibition entitled "Tintarella di luna" at Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, in 2016. Especially conceived for the opening of the museum‘s new extension, Leutenegger created a poetic group of large-sized dark-colored interiors. In 2019, for her show at L'Abbatiale in Bellelay, a historic building from the 18th century in the picturesque village, she showed large scale monotypes on mirrored surfaces.
 
In recent years, Leutenegger has explored additional techniques, such as ceramics for an edition of the NZZ, or the sgraffito technique in her installation at the Biennale Bregaglia, and various recent art-in-architecture projects. Sgraffito is an ancient Italian engraving technique. This craft, which dates back to the Renaissance, is typical of the appearance of many houses in Engadin.
 
For Zilla Leutenegger, drawing provides a way of creating an immediate gesture. Accordingly, her works on paper or video installations appear light-hearted and unpretentious. Only when examined closely one starts to sense the technical construction necessary for each piece. After an initial film shoot in the green box the artist cuts the scenes of her videos before reworking them digitally in her studio. Then she projects the mutated video onto a wall drawing or complements it with an object piece to create a three-dimensional installation.
 
Zilla Leutenegger is foremost known for her signature drawing style, made up of clear, bold strokes and strong color accents. Dried trickles of acrylic paint tell the story of the drawing’s creation and are often incorporated into the picture. The artist habitually works simultaneously in her various mediums. Therefore, the works on paper and video installation can often be read as single scenes or chapters of a larger whole. The combining element between the various works is often a person, an object, a chair or a library.  The artist celebrates single moments of every-day life, which develop an unexpected poetry when seen separately. Immediacy and spontaneity become apparent in every drawn line and projected plane with which the artist dissects a fictional life.
 

Zilla's works have been exhibited internationally since 1996. Past solo exhibitions were presented at Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen (2022); Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur (2021); Musée Jenisch, Vevey (2016); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2015); Centro de Arte Caja Burgos CAB, Burgos, Spain (2014) and Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, (2014), among others. Major group exhibitions include: International Drawing Biennial, National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina (2022); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London (2021); "Fly me to the Moon", Kunsthaus Zürich and Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2019); "The World on Paper", Palais Populaire der Deutschen Bank, Berlin (2018); "Interval in Space", Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong (2017) and Sydney Biennale (2014). Works by Zilla can be found in numerous public collections, such as Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur; Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela; Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos; Kunsthaus, Zurich; Kunstmuseum Basel, Museion Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Bolzano; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen and Goetz Collection, Munich, to name but a few. From 2014 to 2021, Zilla Leutenegger was a lecturer at the Architecture Department of ETH Zurich. Since 2022 she has been a guest lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). In autumn 2022, she was awarded as "Honorary Companion ZHdK".

Download Artist's Biography (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
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Selected works
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Bad klein, 2025
    Bad klein, 2025
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Think twice, 2025
    Think twice, 2025
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Think twice, 2025
    Think twice, 2025
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Endless Pool, 2024
    Endless Pool, 2024
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Coconut cat, 2024
    Coconut cat, 2024
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Spitzbergen, 2023
    Spitzbergen, 2023
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Willy, 2023
    Willy, 2023
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Kira, 2023
    Kira, 2023
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Alice, 2023
    Alice, 2023
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Die Lesende (Round the world), 2022
    Die Lesende (Round the world), 2022
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Die Lesende (Cut) [The Reader (Cut)], 2022
    Die Lesende (Cut) [The Reader (Cut)], 2022
  • Zilla Leutenegger, 16. März 2022 (Saharastaub), 2022
    16. März 2022 (Saharastaub), 2022
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Moby Dick, 2022
    Moby Dick, 2022
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Moony, 2022
    Moony, 2022
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Papa bear chair, 2021
    Papa bear chair, 2021
  • Zilla Leutenegger, 19. Mai 2021 (Redlight Corona), 2021
    19. Mai 2021 (Redlight Corona), 2021
  • Zilla Leutenegger, 20. Dez. 2021 (Viva Italia), 2021
    20. Dez. 2021 (Viva Italia), 2021
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Katze, sitzend hoch (Cat, sitting high), 2020
    Katze, sitzend hoch (Cat, sitting high), 2020
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Bagno verde, 2020
    Bagno verde, 2020
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Lampenkopf, 2020
    Lampenkopf, 2020
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Katze, frontal stehende, 2020
    Katze, frontal stehende, 2020
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Schwarze Küche, 2019
    Schwarze Küche, 2019
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Wilder Mohn, 2019
    Wilder Mohn, 2019
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Hallenbad, 2019
    Hallenbad, 2019
  • Zilla Leutenegger, As time goes by, 2018
    As time goes by, 2018
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Lampe, 2015
    Lampe, 2015
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Rondo, 2008
    Rondo, 2008
  • Zilla Leutenegger, Lucellino, 2006
    Lucellino, 2006
Selected exhibitions
  • Zilla Leutenegger

    Zilla Leutenegger

    Zierp, Zierp

    Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse (Löwenbräu), Zurich

     10 Oct - 14 Nov 1998
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