Lela Pierce

Lela Pierce is a multiracial Black artist working in painting, performance, and installation to fuel a decolonial practice that foregrounds transformation and freedom through explorations of her cultural heritage and personal spiritual interests. 

Pierce’s solo exhibitions include Variations on a Sun Star at Bockley Gallery (2022) and Invasive Species: Lupines at the Kalmar Art Museum in Sweden (2019). Her work was featured in the recent group exhibitions Change is God – Take Root Among the Stars: Black Abstraction in the Midwest at Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis (2022) and what moves between at the University of Minnesota’s Katherine Nash Gallery (2022). Pierce’s performances were recently commissioned for the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Virtual Alter (2021) and the Alchemy & Intention: Summer Solstice Performance Art Festival atFranconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minnesota (2021). 

Pierce is a recipient of a Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship (2018). She has performed with Rosy Simas Danse and Ananya Chatterjea’s Ananya Dance Theatre. She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota (2022), and a BA (with honors) in Studio Art from Macalester College, where she is a visiting instructor in Art and Art History. 

Born and raised in rural Minnesota, Lela Pierce is based in Minneapolis.

www.lelapierce.com