Erica il cane, the pseudonym of Leonardo (Belluno, 1980), is an Italian artist.
A street artist, illustrator, draftsman, and sculptor, she has created graffiti and installations all over the world. According to the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago, Erica il cane “belongs to that European generation of new street artists who have revolutionized the way public space is conceived.”
Originally from Belluno, he began to make a name for himself at the start of the new millennium with graffiti on walls and in Bologna’s social centres, as well as at several video-art events organised by the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, where he trained. His collaboration with the street artist Blu is particularly significant; from the very beginning they have jointly created numerous murals, almost invariably on a monumental scale.

Erica il cane’s works are distinguished by a scientific exactitude with which the artist depicts unsettling, human-like animals set in disorienting contexts that often carry social or ecological meaning. The same iconography recurs in his refined drawings, artist’s books, videos, and installations—frequently created on public commission—ranging from the giant school-boy puppet installed in Piazza Maggiore for Bologna’s traditional Vecchione in 2009 to the 2013 mural adorning the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá, Colombia.

Over the years her reputation has grown and, despite her indifference to the art market, she has occasionally begun collaborating with several galleries, including Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Florence, D406 in Modena, Squadro in Bologna, and the renowned Pictures On The Walls—an offshoot of London’s Lazarides gallery, which also handles works by Banksy, Stanley Donwood, and 3D [1]. Yet more than her infrequent exhibitions, it is above all her murals that have made her known in every corner of the world. Besides Italy, she has been active in the United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Morocco, Palestine, France, and Germany.