Biography

Jasmine Zelaya is a multi- disciplinary first generation Honduran- American artist. The daughter of parents who immigrated to the US in the early 1970’s, much of her work references the aesthetics of that period. Zelaya’s work explores themes of identity, assimilation and the brown body through a familial narrative rich with symbology. Zelaya received her BFA in Painting in 2006 from the Kansas City Art Institute. Now based in Houston, her work has been featured in numerous publications, and television media. Her public works can be found throughout Houston, engaging with diverse communities. In her heavily textured paintings, rhinestones in the hundreds are painstakingly affixed one-by one with tweezers, in a process driven act the artist sees as ritual. Recent installations speak to the injustices faced by migrants, BIPOC and the systems that continuously fail them.