Layla Moreira Bispo (b. 1994) Born in Recife, Brazil, in 1994, Layla Bispo (they/them) received their MFA in IPEF (Interdisciplinary Practices in Emerging Forms in 2023) and their bachelor's degree in Creative Writing (2016) from the University of Houston. Before earning their MFA, Bispo worked as a docent for years at the Blaffer Art Museum and went on to win the Minnette and Jerome Robinson Scholarship for Docents in 2022. Bispo was also an artist-in-residence at the Hardy & Nance Studios (2015) and now works as an administrator at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Artist Statement Layla Moreira Bispo (they/them) is an artist and educator from Houston, Texas. Born in 1994 in Recife, Brazil, Bispo’s family immigrated to Houston in 1997 in pursuit of a better life. As a child, Bispo remembers rarely playing with toys and instead opting for the hobby of taking things apart and glueing them back together. Armed with dollar-store superglue and an eyeglass repair kit, Bispo would take apart alarm clocks, jeans, trash, dolls and little dollar-store trinkets, before gluing them all together in a new way. The act of gluing disconnected items together assigned new meaning and relevance to physical objects in the same way that an immigrant child often must organize and assemble foreign information to make meaningful distinctions. This material translation has evolved to include miniature toys, miscellaneous jewels, textile samples, and other objects representative of both (a) a timeline of a transforming psyche and (b) the de-valorization of materials once something has become broken, or singular, or used or discarded. This body of work questions capitalistic value and repositions a melee of found objects into representative monuments erected to reflect the fantasy of building the American Dream. *Bispo would like to acknowledge the poetry of Farrah Fang, whose poem "Love Me in the Light" is the source of all the titles of their "Anti-Monument" sculptures. To purchase a copy of Farrah Fang's book Quererme en La Luz click here. Curriculum Vitae EDUCATION 2023 MFA, Studio IPEF: Interdisciplinary Practices and Emerging Forms, University of Houston 2016 BFA, English, Creative Writing, University of Houston AWARDS 2022 Minnette & Jerome Robinson Scholarship for Docents, Blaffer EXHIBITIONS2024 Neighbors, group, “Gaza, Tigray, Sudan & Congo: Art Auction Benefit”2024 Big Medium, group, “Crossroads, Eastward Imprints: Houston Artists in Austin”2023 El Chante Casa de Cultura Art Gallery, group, “Beyond the Currencies of Latinx Art” 2023 Blaffer Art Museum, group, “Thesis Show”2023 Blaffer Art Museum, group “Annual Student Show”2023 Elgin Street Studios, group, “Woman.Life.Freedom.”2022 Elgin Street Studios, solo, “Sea of Serotonin”2022 Blaffer Art Museum, group, “Annual Student Show”2022 Hardy & Nance Street Studios, group, “Abstract Show”2022 Flatland Gallery, group, “What Have I Become?”2022 Elgin Street Studios, group, “G5 Collective”2022 1810 Ojeman, group, “Holy of Holies (fundraiser)” Artist Interview