The Unknown Thing that Frees You | Lela Pierce

Pierce expands the boundaries of what seeks to contain us. Located sonically in the color black, sinking deep in the earth and reaching far out into outer space, this work, encompassing various 2D and 3D forms, teeters between spaces of perceived comfort and discomfort, grief, longing, darkness and light—stretching and reaching towards cyclical spaces of joy, and becoming.

Diving into ancestral displacement and genealogical shapes of estrangement this work seeks liberation from the limiting aspects of the body through a fearless embracing of “the unknown thing that frees you.” 

As a Black multiracial artist Pierce does not believe in universalisms. “Identity and cultural specificity are central to my practice. Diving deep into tradition and embodied research,  I seek freedom from the more limited aspects of definition and purity through the  evolution of artistic style and the unfolding of intentional narratives. Beginning with the  body and the memories they hold, I strive towards an interconnected existence beyond  the corporeal.”

Oscillating between performance, sculptural installation and 2D work, Pierce creates spaces,  images and situations that are rooted in localities of expanding in-betweenness. By accentuating and dismantling visual borders, blurring boundaries between interior/internal and exterior/external ecologies through the generation of imagery and the intentional physical displacement of plants, objects, people, animals and situations.  

Pierce is intentional in decolonizing aesthetic language. Their paintings work to de-center western European reference points that are not in alignment with who Pierce is, instead finding influence in folk art traditions that have historically been practiced by women, especially Women of Color. From their kin, Pierce finds resonance with West African and Eastern European textiles, decorative eggs (pysanky), beadwork, and traditional home embellishments, as well as committed studies in Madhubani Painting techniques from the Bihar region of India under the guidance of their teacher Manisha Jha in New Delhi. Repetition is often found in folk art due to the deep connection that women have with it —from moon cycles in the body to various forms of traditional physical labors. In practice Pierce uses repetition to create contemplative mental spaces to process information through intellect and assert transformative affirmations. The visual  presence of repetition reflects rhythms that are present in life - cycles of  death, life, rebirth, day and night, breath, the passage of time and seasons, sleep  rhythms, heart beats, rituals, habits, forms of labor, genetic inheritance and so much  more. 

About the Artist:

Lela Pierce (she/they) is a Black multiracial artist, born and raised in rural MniSota Makoce - the ancestral and current homeland of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people. She has lived in the Twin Cities for 2 decades -maintaining artistic practices in painting, performance and installation work. Lela has danced extensively with Ananya Dance Theatre as a founding member (2004-2016) as well as Rosy Simas Danse and Pramila Vasudevan of Anichha Arts (both 2015-present). In 2018 she was awarded a Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship for visual art through MCAD. Her work has been presented internationally in India and Sweden (including a solo show at Kalmar Konstmuseum) as well as several Twin Cities venues. Lela holds a BA in Studio Art with Honors from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and an MFA in interdisciplinary art and social practice from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She currently teaches Sculpture at Macalester College and is a recent Jerome Hill Fellowship artist.

Gallery Hours:

Thursday         11am-6pm
Friday             11am-6pm
Saturday         11am-5pm
Sunday           11am-5pm

Presented alongside: Fragments of Intimacy | Krista Anderson-Larson and Fast and Loose | Ruthann Godollei