RESUME

Lela Shahrzad Welch is a seeker of a culture rather than a participant. That role has left an indelible mark on their artistic practice, explored through mythopoeia, sculpture, and performance.​​ Pulling from Avtar Brah's use of the arabesque as an allegorical framework for storytelling, Welch writes short stories inspired by family history and Ferdowsi's 11th century epic poem, Shahnameh (Book of Kings). Those stories and characters are the driving force behind an ongoing series of steel and metal tapestries tapping into the history of assemblage, utilizing experimental finishes that include photo emulsion, screen printing, patinas and powder coating.

 As a child of a woman who left Iran in 1978, she was raised with an American idealism and Persian conservatism, which took the form of strict discipline and cultural ambiguity. The stringent expectations of that lingering world were inconsistent with the freedoms and desires of an American adolescence, coupled with language barriers and a family struggling with mental health, severed her connection to a Persian lineage and fueled in her a rebellion and drug addiction.

Now, as a sober artist, she weaves that influence into her performances and sculptures, drawing inspiration from traditional Persian imagery and storytelling to create work that considers the role and effects of translation and emerging technology through a series of metal “tapestries”.  Welch utilizes CNC technology to explore the limitations of indirect knowledge.  Simply, their practice considers how language, translation, and technology have affected art and the oral histories of the Persian diaspora.

LELA SHARZHAD WELCH
lelashahrzad@gmail.com
www.lelashahrzad.com
@lela.shahrzad
Los Osos, CA

2024     MFA— Spatial Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
2018 BFA— Art & Design, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 off cut, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA (upcoming)
2025 Ghosts-Above_Ghosts-Below.dxf, LEFT FIELD Gallery, Los Osos, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 The 100th Show, LEFT FIELD Gallery, Los Osos, CA
2024 The Dinner Party, KEYSTONE Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
2024 Incandescent, Art, Design and Architecture Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
2024 GLAMFA, CSU Long Beach School of Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2023 INVERSE Performance Art Festival, Crystal Bridges’ The Momentary, Bentonville, AR
2023 Analogous Roots, Napa Hall Art Gallery, CSU Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
2023 tributaries, Art, Design, and Architecture Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
2023 Tres Leches, Red Barn Artist Space, Santa Barbara, CA
2023 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2022 Untitled, Glassbox Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2020 INVERSE Performance Art Festival, Crystal Bridges’ The Momentary, Bentonville, AR (virtual)
2020 Archipelago, Virtual Show
2019 Traces, INVERSE Exhibition, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 Off Menu, 2G Studios, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 The Sadness of Maps, Industry of the Ordinary Residency Exhibition, San Luis Obispo,CA
2018 Maiden LA, Grand Park, Los Angeles, CA (catalog)
2018 This Must Be The Place, University Art Gallery, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
2017 Student Art Exhibition, by nomination only, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA (catalog)

PUBLIC ART
2021 Untitled IV, Mission Plaza, San Luis Obispo, CA
2021 Marianne Williamson Can’t Save Me Now, San Luis Obispo, CA
2019 Attention Economy, Arts Obispo Exhibition, Two-Person Show, San Luis Obispo, CA

RESIDENCIES
2025 Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2024-2025 Post MFA Fellow, Artist in Residence, University of California, Santa Barbara
2021 Dark Study, Experimental Program by Nicole Won Hee Maloof + Caitlin Cherry, virtual
2020 INVERSE Performance Art Residency through the Momentary, Bentonville, AR
2019 INVERSE Performance Art Residency, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 Industry of the Ordinary Residency, San Luis Obispo, CA

AWARDS/GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS
2025 CET Grant Recipient, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
2024 Mind + Machine Intelligence Visual Art Award, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2024 Ron Newby Award, University of California, Santa Barbara
2024 Inclusive Blacksmiths Peter’s Valley Craft School Scholarship + Grant, Layton, NJ
2023 Levitan Art Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara
2023 IPS Grant, University of California, Santa Barbara
2023 Curatorial Assistant, Undergraduate Exhibition, Art, Design + Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
2022 Chancellor’s Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara
2021 Downtown Plaza Pop-Up Grant in partnership with the San Luis Obispo Arts Council, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 Personal Achievement Award, Art + Design Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

COLLABORATIONS
2023 Participant, Primary Source/A Conversation by Suzanne Lacy (with Susan Mogul, Linda Vallejo and Jenni Sorkin), REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Participant, The Suzanne Lacy Archive (with Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Lebowitz), REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Artist + Performance Assistant, Performance for Shana Moulton at Taft Gardens, Ojai, CA

PRESS
2025 New Times, March 2025, San Luis Obispo, CA
2024 The Independent, May 2024, Santa Barbara, CA
2024 The Current, May 2024, Santa Barbara, CA
2021 SloLife Magazine, Dec ’21/Jan ’22 (pages 46-47)
2021 LA’s Most Inspiring Stories, VoyageLA, September 20, 2021
2021 The New Alternatives, Art in America, May 2021 (page 68)
2021 On Divergent Art Education: A Case Study in Dark Study, Art & Education, March 2021
2020 Shout Out LA, Voyage LA, Los Angeles, CA, August 2020
2017 Mesa Visions, Art and Literary magazine, judged artwork with photographs, San Diego, CA, May. 21, 2018 (page 8)

LECTURES, PANELS, AND WORKSHOPS
2025 Artist Talk — College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
    Guest Critic — Senior Thesis Exhibition, College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
2024 Guest Critic — Senior Portfolio Reviews, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
Entwined: Botanical Studies with a Focus on Connection — Blacksmithing Workshop, Peter’s Valley Craft School, Layton, New Jersey
2023 Guest Critic — Senior Portfolio Reviews, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
  Trigger to Talisman — Metals Workshop, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME
2020 Panelist — INVERSE Performance Art Festival, The Momentary, Virtual