︎Lela Shahrzad Welch is a sculptor and performance artist working at the intersection of oral histories and mythopoeia comparing the gaps in oral histories to the gaps of information in technological fabrication systems.
Lela’s exhibition history includes Crystal Bridges’ satellite museum, The Momentary (Bentonville, AR), Napa Art Gallery (Channel Islands, CA), Mesa Gallery (San Diego, CA), Atkinson Gallery (Santa Barbara,CA), and Left Field (Los Osos, CA). They have participated in multiple residencies, including The Industry of the Ordinary’s performance art residency and the INVERSE Performance Art residency and will be heading to the Bemis Center Summer of 2025. They have collaborated with artists in Panama, New York, Beijing, and Switzerland and have been mentioned in Art & America, Art and Education, SLO Life Magazine, The Independent and VoyageLA. In 2021 she studied with the virtual first experimental art school, Dark Study. Welch graduated in 2018 with a BFA in Art & Design from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, with the Life Achievement Award. She received her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the esteemed Regent’s Fellowship and as a Ron Newby Award recipeint. She is currently a lecturer at Cal Poly, SLO and the Artist in Residence for the University of California, Santa Barbara.
PHOTO BY HÁI TRIĚU