Elyla
Performance artist, Nicaragua (also in Venice Biennial exhibition)
Elyla (Nicaragua) is a performance artist and activist from Central America, Chontales, Nicaragua. Their work deals with creating resistance to colonial, imperialist, and Western ideologies around the construction of identity politics and nation-state cultural narratives, specifically as it relates to mestizaje, queerness (cochoneidad), and indigenous ancestry. Elyla has presented their work at the IX/X Biennial of Nicaragua, IX/X Central American Biennials, and the XII Biennial of Havana, Cuba and will be part of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
The artist’s early work dealt with contesting the patriarchal and repressive narratives upheld by the Latin American left and its effect on queer existence. Their project Machete Dress was a grant recipient of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) 16th annual Grants & Commissions Program. They are also a 2020 Artist Protection Fund Fellow (APF-IIE), Prince Claus Seed Awardee 2021 and recently awarded a Moving Narratives Mentorship Award 2024 by the PCF. They work and live in Masaya, Nicaragua.