LEDA CEMPELLIN (born Italy) is Assistant Professor at SDSU Visual Arts Department, where she teaches courses of Art History and Art Appreciation.

She was awarded Dottore in Lettere Moderne cum laude (1999) at the University of Padua, Italy, and Dottore di Ricerca in Storia dell’Arte (2004) at the University of Parma, Italy. Her doctoral dissertation, I Ruoli dell’Iperrealismo Americano a Documenta 5, Kassel 1972, has been deposited at the National Library in Florence, Italy.
(http://opac.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/opac/controller.jsp?action=search_byautoresearch&query_fieldname_1=vidtutti&query_querystring_1=PUVV265902).

From 1995 to 2001, she has extensively published in contemporary art history, art criticism, and image analysis in cultural and art magazines across Italy, with emphasis in Contemporary American Art History. In 2003, she took part of the Scientific Committee of the Exhibition Iperrealisti at Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, with a mention in catalog by the mayor of Rome Walter Weltroni.

Her past collaborations with Italian and Italo-American institutions include the University of California in Padua, the Italo-American Association of FVG in Trieste, the Associazione Culturale Internazionale per l’Analisi del Testo Letterario e Figurativo MeQRiMa in Udine, and most recently, during the Academic Year 2004-2005, the SACI – Studio Art Centers International (affiliated with Bowling Green State University), with a seminar addressing issues on Art and Politics and an exhibition of posters by American Photorealists, both promoted by the artist Audrey Flack.

During the Academic Year 2005-2006, she has taught the entire Art History Minor at Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR, where she has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence in teaching signed by the President, the Provost and the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Her most recent research and upcoming conference activities, mostly focused in the XX century art history, address historical issues in the areas of American art, Italian art, gender and art. Between 2006 and 2008, she has presented the following papers at local, regional, national and/or international level: “The Change of Aspects and Functions of the Polyptych in the XX century”;  “Abstract Illusionism: A Perspective”; “From Hollywood to the Parking Lots: The Construction and Manipulation of Female Identities in Pop Art”; “Harvey Dunn’s Women”; “Between History and Eschatology: The Contribution of Mario Tessari to Italian Anachronism”.
She is a member of the College Art Association.


Selected publications:

“Abstract Illusionism: a perspective”, online publication, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii; re-published in the site of New York art dealer Louis K. Meisel - January 2007 and April 2008
(www.hichumanities.org and http://www.meiselgallery.com/LKMG/artistsFrameset.html).

Leigh Behnke: Real Spaces, Imagined Lives, CLEUP, Padua (Italy) - 2005.

L’Iperrealismo ‘fotografico’ americano in pittura. Risonanze storiche nella East e nella West Coast, CLEUP, Padua (Italy) - 2004

“Omaggio a Don Eddy. Il percorso pittorico dell’artista visto attraverso una collezione di poster e manifesti”, exhibition and text in catalog, Expo Arte 2004, Fiera del Levante, Bari (Italy) - 2004

I Ruoli dell’Iperrealismo Americano a Documenta 5, Kassel, 1972, Doctoral dissertation, University of Parma (Italy) - 2004

“L’Iperrealismo Americano Storico: il lungo silenzio italiano”, in Iperrealisti, exhibition catalog, Chiostro del Bramante, Rome (Italy), April 5-June 15, 2003, pp.39-49 - 2003

“Marco Zen: tensioni verso la liberazione / Marco Zen: Spannungen zur Freiheit” (translation Sonja Bless), in Zen, Sergio-Marco, exhibition catalog, Galerie im Alten Rathaus, Prien am Chiemsee (Germany):  March 3 – April 8, 2001

Conversazioni con Don Eddy – Conversations with Don Eddy, CLEUP, Padua (Italy) - 2000

“La Strage degli innocenti: il Tintoretto e l’Anonimo”, in MeQRima, CLEUP Ed., Padua (Italy), December 2000, pp.41-75 - 2000

“L’Approccio al dipinto Dreamreader’s Cabinet di Don Eddy secondo le categorie gestaltiche di Rudolf Arnheim”, in Interpretare, Campanotto Ed., Pasian di Prato – UD (Italy), April 2000, pp.193-190 - 2000

“Sulla committenza del monumento al Gattamelata”, in Padova e il Suo Territorio, La Garangola Ed., Padua (Italy) -  August 1998.