Laetitia Um’s work navigates the emotional terrains of heartbreak, longing, and transformation. Through animation, sculpting, and illustration, she distills the nuances of the human condition into visual form. Informed by her mixed Salvadoran and Chinese-Timorese heritage, she draws on the vivid storytelling traditions of Latin American and Asian cinema. These impressions are carried into her process, merging digital tools with traditional techniques, generating a tension between the ephemeral and the tactile. Rooted in dreamy clarity and hand-drawn simplicity, her work becomes a contemplative space. It offers a visual language for processing personal and collective emotional experiences in an increasingly polarised world.

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Laetitia Um is a Chinese-Timorese/Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Her creative journey began with early film works produced during her Bachelor of Design in Animation & Interactive Media at RMIT University. Grounded in storytelling, her foundation in animation led to collaborations across mediums including moving image (Netflix, Hulu), dance (City Sessions), and music (HopeStreet Recordings).

In 2024, Laetitia began exhibiting in group shows (Brunswick Street Gallery, Midsumma, SOL Gallery), drawing audiences to her layered, narrative-driven work. Residencies in France and Japan deepened her engagement with experimental storytelling and strengthened her relationship to materiality and form. 

Her debut solo exhibition, Love Letters To My City (2025, Schoolhouse Studios), marks a pivotal moment in her evolving practice. It serves as a personal reflection on how familiar spaces, once sources of comfort, can be transformed or tainted by pivotal life experiences.

Alongside her visual work, Laetitia writes for the Asian arts magazine HOISZN, contributing thoughtful reflections on culture, identity, and community.