Born in 1975 in Colombia, Leyla lives and works in Bogota. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Los Andes University and her MFA from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Recent exhibitions include  Manifesto of Fragility  at the Lyon Bienial, France 2022, the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador in 2018 ,the  show Home, so different, so appealing at LACMA 2017 as part of the Pacific Standard Time project: LA / LA of the Getty and in the MFAH. The same year she participated in the California Pacific Triennial at OCMA (Orange County Museum of Art).
She was the recipient of the 2019 Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation grant as a mid carreer artist nominated by Jesus Fuentemayor with an exhibition at Museo del Barrio,  New York, she won the OMA prize in Bogota,  and was artist in residency in Switzerland with Pro Helvetia  in 2022,  Q21Museums Quartier Wien-Austria in 2016, NEARCH-Art and Archeology “The Materiality of the Invisible” at the Jan Van Eyck Academie –Maastricht, NL in 2015-17, Dimensions Variable in Miami 2017. 
Her works are in the permanent collections of  the Museum of Latin American Art, MOLAA, Long Beach, California, the CIFO Art Foundation, Miami, the West Collection Philadelphia, USA, the Asiacity Trust Proyecto LARA LLP, Singapore,  the Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá and the
Banco de la Republica, Bogota among others.


Bogotá

La Biennale de Lyon

Lyon

Bienal International de Cuenca

Cuenca

Long Beach

Museum of Latin American Art

Miami

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Cifo)

Leyla Cardenas

Pro Helvetia 2020 studio residency

Maastricht

Jan Van Eyck Academie

Interfaz Posible 2

Mutual Dissolution

Endless Reweaving

Interfaz Posible 1