Katelyn Ledford (b. 1994, Austin, Texas, USA) lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. She received her BFA in Painting from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2017 and her MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, USA, in 2019. Ledford’s practice centers on painting and focuses on allegorical portraiture developed through trompe-l’oeil and photorealistic techniques. Working primarily in oil and acrylic, she constructs meticulously rendered compositions in which objects—such as studio materials, symbolic props, and fragments of painting supports—replace direct figuration and function as surrogates for psychological and emotional states. Often depicting the reverse sides of canvases and staged still-life arrangements, her works explore themes of performance, authenticity, and the constructed nature of identity, drawing on art historical references while addressing the social dynamics of visibility, vulnerability, and self-representation within contemporary culture. Selected exhibitions include presentations at Museum of Museums, Seattle, USA, and Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, USA, as well as solo exhibitions at Fredericks & Freiser, New York, USA; M+B, Los Angeles, USA; DUVE, Berlin, Germany; and Dio Horia, Athens, Greece. Her work has been featured in publications including Artforum, Juxtapoz, and Art Plugged.