Layo Bright: Rockhaven

Layo Bright (b. Lagos, Nigeria) is a sculptor whose works explore themes of migration, inheritance, legacy and identity through hybrid portraits, textiles, and mixed media. Concerned with mining personal archives and collective experiences she interrogates how materials shape perception, culture and politics. She draws inspiration from plant forms, family and ancestry in creating sculptural works that merge notions of nurture and legacy. Working with a range of materials such as glass, clay, wood and textiles, these forms mirror fragile yet complex relationships with the personal, natural and built environment.

Working with ubiquitous plastic checkered bags often linked with migrants around the world, Bright juxtaposes the material with crushed glass, addressing overlooked histories and notions of class. In fusing these materials, she considers suppressed histories and the inevitability of migration in the current global climate.

Bright received her LL.B (Hons.) from Babcock University (2014), was called to the Nigerian Bar Association (2015) and received her MFA in Fine Art (Hons.) from the Parsons School of Design (2018). She is the recipient of honors and awards including the UrbanGlass Winter Scholarship Award (2021), UrbanGlass Winter Scholarship Award (2020), the International Sculpture Center’s 2018 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (2018); and the Beyoncé Formation Finalist Scholarship (2017). She has exhibited work internationally in exhibitions including Woman to Woman, Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany; House of Crowns, Phillips, NY, USA; To Heal and Protect, Welancora Gallery, NY, USA; I Am Not A Goddess...Unless I Say I Am, Mike Adenuga Centre, Lagos, Nigeria; Something About Us, Anthony Gallery, IL, USA; A Chance Encounter, Parts & Labor, NY, USA; Migration(s) and Meanings in Art, Meyerhoff Gallery at MICA, MD, USA; Maid in Nigeria, Untitled AWCA, Lagos, Nigeria; Through Her Eye, Mana Contemporary, IL; Carry Over: New Voices from the Global African Diaspora, Smack Mellon, NY, USA; Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN, among others.

She is currently partaking in the Tyler School of Glass Residency in Philadelphia, PA. Previous residencies include Art Cake Residency in Brooklyn, NY; Nxthvn Fellowship in New Haven, CT; Triangle, Brooklyn, NY; Flux Factory, Queens, NY; The Studios at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; Tri-tryagain Studio Residency, Brooklyn, NY; International Studio Center Sculpture Residency at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, NJ.