Esther Elia is an Assyrian-Irish artist from Turlock, California. Her interdisciplinary practice engages family folklore as the basis for understanding mixed ethnicity and the question of how to be Assyrian in diaspora.

The figures in her work “imagine the children and grandchildren of the Assyrian pantheon birthed in diaspora to care for our people as we navigate new places. These “new goddesses” are inspired by materials and aesthetics of our new environments, while maintaining a connection to our homeland, culture, and art practices. They recognize the difficult dance of diaspora, and whisper to us that not all change is assimilation – some of it is growth.”

Elia received her BFA in 2019 from California College of the Arts and her MFA in 2023 from the University of New Mexico.