Artist portrait by Daniel Greer

Layo Bright (b. Lagos, Nigeria) explores themes of migration, agency and identity through hybrid portraits, textiles, and mixed media works.

Bright’s work is currently on view in Making Moves: A Collection of Feminisms at The Crocker Art Museum. Additionally her recent works are touring from the seminal group exhibition A Two-Way Mirror curated by Jabari Owens-Bailey at The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington—next on view at The Knoxville Museum of Art in 2026.

Other recent exhibitions include Dawn & Dusk, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, USA; BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI, USA; Invasive Blooms, Montclair State University Galleries, Montclair, NJ, USA; A Two Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA (traveling museum exhibition); Mining Abstractions, kó, Lagos, Nigeria; Heartwood, Halsey McKay Gallery, New York, NY; Between the Seams, PM/AM Gallery, London, England; The Glass Show, Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY, USA; Rockhaven, Monique Meloche Gallery, IL, USA; Undercurrents, Sean Kelly Gallery, NY, USA; Woman to Woman, Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany; among others.

She has participated in notable art fairs such as The Armory Show 2025, NADA NY 2025, The Armory Show 2024, Art Dubai 2024, Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024, Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, EXPO Chicago 2023, Art Basel Miami Beach 2022, Future Fair 2021 and Prizm Art Fair 2020.

Bright received her MFA (Hons.) from the Parsons School of Design (2018) and is the recipient of honors and awards including the 2025 UrbanGlass Artist Honoree Award (2025), the Ron Desmett Memorial Award for Imagination with Glass (2023), UrbanGlass Visiting Artist Fellowship (2023), NXTHVN Fellowship (2021), the International Sculpture Center’s 2018 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (2018); and the Beyoncé Formation Finalist Scholarship (2017).

She has participated in several artist residencies including the The Corning Museum of Glass Artist-in-Residence Program, Corning, NY, USA; Ron Desmett Award Residency, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Visiting Artist Residency at The Museum of Glass, Tacoma WA; the Visiting Artist and Designer Fellowship at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY; the Laurie Wagman Visiting Artist & AIR at Tyler School of Art, 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.