About
Photo by Róisin Dennis
Leticia Maldonado is a Mexican-American mixed media sculptor and educator with a focus in illuminated glass. Maldonado finds inspiration, love, and power in the mythology we create as individuals, within a family, and within a society. Believing the treasure of mythology is to encompass those we love in communion, and to share truths with one another, Leticia’s sculpture focuses on objects that espouse these stories, and encourage emotional time travel. Growing up and spending her formative years in the desert outskirts of Las Vegas, NV, Maldonado was enamored at a young age with the visceral experience of the beautiful neon signage strewn about the entire city. She has since cultivated a visual vocabulary that endeavors to use the power of light and color in service of poetic emotional disruption.
Pursuing first an education in figurative art, illustration, and sequential story telling at The Art Institute of Las Vegas, Santa Monica City College, and The Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, Maldonado never forgot her indelible attraction to neon. Moving into this medium in 2013, Maldonado found her way to Lili Lakich’s neon design and fabrication classes, and later studied glass bending and processing with the artist Michael Flechtner. Maldonado chooses to focus on working with the smallest diameter of glass available in order to achieve as much detail as possible in her expression.
Art has always served the purpose of connection in her life, both to herself through process and to community through exhibitions and classes. Landmark exhibitions would include being curated into She Bends, a traveling exhibition of all female identifying benders working in neon, Construyendo Puentes a show of Chicano artists from Los Angeles, which traveled throughout Mexico, and a first museum solo show at The Museum Of Neon Art in Glendale, CA. In She Bends, curated by Meryl Pataky, Leticia had the chance to connect with an entire community of neon sculptors from across the world espousing the tenant of community over competition. In Construyendo Puentes, curated by Julian Bermudez, the experience was a chance to connect more strongly to the in-between place of existing equally in two cultures and having to carve out and own a blended identity.
Recently Maldonado was named the official Artist of The 2025 Latin Grammy Awards. She was invited to create a three dimensional neon sculpture to represent both the award itself and the spirit of the awards, to be used for the program, posters, and marketing for the event.
Maldonado’s artwork is part of the permanent collections of The Latin Recording Academy, The Neon Museum of Las Vegas, and The Museum of Neon Art. Though preferring to focus on personal projects, Maldonado can count among her clients, Life is Beautiful festival, The Standard Hotel, Viceland, Google, Superfrico LV, Apple Music, and The Latin Recording Academy. Leticia Maldonado lives and works in Los Angeles, CA