Jay Elizondo

Provenance: Courtesy of the Artist

Missy (Mom in Mirror) is a photograph where I perform my mother’s actions: primping, adjusting, dressing in her home in Columbus, OH. I take on her appearance and gestures to empathize with her. Performing as her is to better understand her experiences in times where my queerness has strained yet deepened our bond. As I’ve queered my mother, I also queer her real personal objects by drenching them in crystals, sequins, and glitter. The transformation of my mother and her personal objects, intentionally blur the authorship between mother and child, complicating and celebrating a dialogue across gender, genealogy, and time.

Jay Elizondo is an artist whose work seduces viewers into visceral confrontations with the queer body. She has an MFA in Fine Arts at The School of Visual Arts and a BFA in Fine Arts from The Columbus College of Art & Design. Her work has been featured in exhibitions including: Idol Worship at Smack Mellon and The Unspeakable: A Dark Show in Brooklyn, NY, Satellite Art Show 2019 and 2018 in Miami, FL, and a solo exhibition, preMATURE in Columbus, OH. Elizondo curated You Remember How Lonely Everything Was in The Beginning at Please Don’t Come to This Show and Talented, Brilliant, Incredible, Amazing, Showstopping, Spectacular, Never The Same, Totally Unique, Completely Not Ever Been Done Before, Unafraid To Reference Or Not Reference, Put It In A Blender, Shit On It, Vomit On It, Eat It, Give Birth To It at SVA Chelsea Gallery in New York, NY. She was a resident artist at The Chautauqua School of Art residency in Chautauqua, NY. and a resident artist at The New York Studio Residency Program in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently one of the featured artists for Smack Mellon’s 2021-2022 Hot Picks. She is a recipient of The 2020 Edward Zutrau Memorial Award, The Jeff F Hilson Memorial Fund, The Edith Smilack Fund, and a nominee of The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio Award 2018 Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts. Her work has been published in Front Runner Magazine’s “Special Guest Post: Curator Emily Colucci’s Idol Worship,” Hiss Mag’s “Issue 3,” POPULUV’s “Meet Jason Elizondo, Ohio’s Most-Talked-About Student Artist,” and Outlook Ohio Magazine’s “My Art Could Mean Anything.” Elizondo is the co-founder of Please Don’t Come to This Show, an online project space that reflects on the complex relationship to online omnipresence and digital information through a tongue-in-cheek poetization of technotopia. She currently lives and works in New York.