Elvira Clayton’s art practice is deeply rooted in historical research, memory, and ritual. She weaves together cloth, objects from nature, unconventional materials, and archival fragments to create work that honors the lives of people erased from dominant historical narratives, particularly those who lived under American slavery. Through hand-stitching, binding, beading, and weaving, her pieces function as visual narratives and ritualistic vessels that hold the stories of lost and forgotten individuals, acknowledging her own enslaved ancestors and the resilience of the communities she represents.

Clayton works across multiple media, including installation, performance, assemblage sculpture, textile art, and printmaking, often bringing together family photographs, historical text, slave-era textiles, amulets, and natural objects. Her work inhabits the space between art and archive, transforming research materials into compelling sensory experiences that foreground connections between past and present, history and identity. Exhibitions of her work have appeared widely in galleries and museums across the United States, and she has participated in significant residencies and fellowships that support artists engaging deeply with cultural history and memory.

In addition to her studio practice, Clayton engages in collaborative and socially oriented projects, including oral history collections, public art installations, and performance work that documents and celebrates community narratives. Through these collective practices, she fosters connections across generations and cultural histories, using art as a means of remembrance, reclamation, and dialogue.

During her residency, Elvira will be researching and creating work for her ongoing project 436, a large-scale installation informed by a 1859 slave auction catalog. 

To see more of Elvira’s work, visit her website.
Instagram: @claytonelvira