Bio

Elvira Clayton is a visual artist and performance artist. Anchored in historical research, much of Clayton’s practice responds to the lives of people who lived under American slavery. She mines slave-related archive collections and documents to uncover hidden histories and stories that she brings to light through her work. Clayton says, “Through this process, I am honoring my own enslaved ancestors.”


Elvira Clayton (b. 1971, Lafayette, LA) has had solo shows at The AEGON Gallery, Centre College, Danville, KY, Fine Arts Gallery, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, and Riverfront Art Gallery, Yonkers, NY. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions throughout the U.S. As a member of The Black Women Artists For Black Lives Matter Performance Group, she has presented performances at The New Museum, NY, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, and The Brooklyn Museum, NY. Clayton is a 2022–2023 A.I.R. Gallery Fellow and a 2022 Robert Blackburn Studio Immersion Fellow. She has been awarded residencies with The Women’s Studio Workshop, Residency Unlimited, The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Blue Mountain Center. She has been both a Laundromat Project Create Change Fellow and Commissioned Artist. She is a 2022 Barbara Deming Fund, Money For Women Grant recipient, and a four-time recipient of The Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grant. Her work has been featured in The Killens Review, Glasstire, Callaloo Journal, and Artsy.net. She lives in Harlem, NY, and works from her studio at The Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY.