Born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, in 1974, Elsa María Meléndez is a visual artist working with textiles, incorporating printmaking, embroidery, and synthetic materials. Usually featuring female protagonists, Meléndez develops an antithesis on judgments of the body and sexuality. The iconography in her works introduces the idiosyncrasy of her environment, summarizing debates that respond to the uncertainty faced with cul_x0002_tural destruction, the exhaustion of human relations, the decline in public policy, and the lack of gender equality. Meléndez received a BFA from the University of Puerto Rico. Her work has been presented in many international group exhibitions and in 2014 she was invited to a midcareer exhibition, Perreta al argumento: 18 años de producción, by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña at the Museo Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina, La Puntilla in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Flamboyán Artist Fellowship in partnership with NALAC, nominated for the 2019 USA Fellowship, United States Artists, and the Lexus Fellowship; most recently, Meléndez was one of the prize winners and also awarded the People's Choice for her piece Milk at the Outwin 2022 Competition at the National Portrait Gallery. First time in the history of the competition that the jury and the public select the same work. Her first solo exhibition in the United States, Vengo de una isla de confusión opened at Alabama Contemporary Art Center on September 2022, traveling to the Rollins Museum in May 2023.
