For some folks, the road to understanding comfort and security takes a long and
meandering path. They didn’t learn it within the structure of a childhood home. Faraway
destinations didn’t provide peace of mind either. Their contentment was only
experienced when traveling the road between the two places. My studio practice explores
that in-between space.
While working on a painting project of West Texas’ Chisos Mountains, I was reminded of
how much I missed the desert. It made me remember the solitude and vastness that a
desert landscape imposes on a person. It is a haunting, comforting, and beautifully sad
environment and the perfect example of a place that hovers between the security of
home and the freedom of the unknown. It is neither “here” and it isn’t quite “there”.
Most can relate that without the monotonous domestic duties, without the tether of
family obligation, without the burdens that a home imposes, there would be no need for
escaping down desert dirt roads. And without the harshness and isolation of desert dirt
roads, there would be no need for the security and shelter of home.
EDUCATION
2016 MFA Painting, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
2011 Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
2008 BFA Painting, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (summa cum laude)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 The Jane Series: New Works by Layla Luna, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX
2020 The Works of Layla Luna, Murchison Performing Arts Center, Denton, TX
2019 Trips to Dream Space, Art Room, Fort Worth, TX
Leaving Home to Find It, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX
2018 Desert Over and Over, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX
The Homesick Project: Exhibition & Artist Residency, Megaphone PHX, Phoenix, AZ
2017 I Saw Nobody Coming, So I Went Instead, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2016 The Opulent Eye, Moudy Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
The More I Build You, Gallery 76102, Fort Worth, TX
2012 In Fives, The Firehouse Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
2010 My Life With Birds, Casa Grande Art Museum, Casa Grande, AZ
2009 Aviary, Practical Art, Phoenix, AZ
Suits, Brand X, Tempe, AZ
2008 Posing Poultry, Step Gallery, Tempe, AZ
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2018 Dwelling: Paintings by Peter Ligon and Layla Luna, Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017 While We’re Here: Layla Luna and Stephen Battle, Gallery 414, Fort Worth, TX
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Big Bend, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX
2020 To 40 More!: Artspace111’s 40th Anniversary Celebration, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX
The 12th Edition: Anniversary Group Show, Practical Art, Phoenix, AZ
2019 Alumni Invitational Show, Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria, IL
Artspace111 @ LHUCA, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX
Chaos 7, Ro2 Art, Dallas, TX
Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Fort Worth, TX
2018 Rising Star 6, Turner House, Dallas, TX
Art in the Metroplex: Runners Up Show, Art7 Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
Through a Scope, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
2017 Art in the Metroplex: Grand Finale, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
2016 Four, BRIK, Fort Worth, TX
Art in the Metroplex 2016, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
Homestead, The Moncrief Cancer Institute, Fort Worth, TX
Transmission, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Fort Worth, TX
2015 Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Fort Worth, TX
Exhibitionists, Fort Worth, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX
Selections, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX
Biennial: Origins in Geometry, Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, Dallas, TX
1-7, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Fort Worth, TX
2014 The Here There: On the Particularity of Space, Some Sum Studios, Winona, MN
2012 Art for the People, Square 459 Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2011 Heart On, 5 & 6 Art Space, Scottsdale, AZ
2010 Sensory Consciousness: Works by Arizona Women, A.E. England Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Potluck, Fragment Gallery, Tucson, AZ
What Texas Means to Me, Austin Art Space, Austin, TX
Bird x Bird 2010, Northrup King Gallery 320, Minneapolis, MN
2009 Offhand: An International Sketch Salon, Gallery 100, Tempe, AZ
2008 Mosaic: Cultural Identity in America, ASU's Museum of Anthropology, Tempe, AZ
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2019-20 Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX
2018 Megaphone PHX, Phoenix, AZ
2017 Kimmel Harding Nelson, Nebraska City, NE
2015 The Rensing Center, Pickens, SC
2014 Weir Farm Art Center, Wilton, CT
2013 Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria, IL
Madroño Ranch, Medina, TX
2010 Ucross Foundation, Clearmont, WY